Author: The Dart CFE team.
Status: Living document.
2019.11.06:
2019.10.18:
NeverType.2019.10.17:
Nullability.neither to Nullability.undetermined.2019.10.15:
DartType.withNullability.2019.09.26:
The sections below describe the encoding of the nullability property on types in the Kernel ASTs produced by the CFE. Details are discussed, such as the use of Nullability.undetermined, and computation of the nullability property for the results of type substitution and type intersection is described. The encoding for late fields and variables and required named parameters is described. Finally, the list of the updates to the public interface of the CFE is given along with some recommendations on updating the client code.
This is a living document describing the changes in the output and in the public interface of the CFE related to the NNBD Dart language feature. It is being updated as more changes are made.
The document describes the updates in the output and in the API of the CFE related to the NNBD Dart language feature. The document attempts to suggest the related updates in the client code for some simple cases.
TODO: Describe non-goals.
The NNBD Dart language feature allows programmers to define types as nullable using the ? suffix. By default, the types are treated as non-nullable. In addition to that, a weak mode is defined that allows programmers to have some of their libraries to be opted out of the NNBD feature. The types in the opted-out libraries are called legacy types and should be accounted for when they meet with nullable or non-nullable types on the library borders, for example in subtype checks. Finally, there are types in the opted-in libraries that can't be classified as either nullable or non-nullable at compile time.
The presence of the nullability property on types affects some of the existing algorithms, such as type checks or type inference. It also introduces additional notions and algorithms that are convenient and sometimes necessary to work with nullable types.
NNBD adds a number of features to the language that are not purely syntactic and should be communicated from the CFE to the back ends. This document describes the related changes in the CFE output as well as the related changes in the API of the CFE libraries.
The nullability property on types is represented by an enum with four possible values: for nullable types, non-nullable types, legacy types, and the types the nullability of which can't be fully determined at compile type.
It is required to compute the nullability of types and their parts when performing type substitution and creating an intersection of two types (also known as type-parameter types with promoted bounds). There are tables that describe those two functions for combining nullabilities.
In addition to the nullability property on types there are new flags on the relevant nodes that mark the use of late and required keywords. There's also a new Kernel AST node for the null check operator.
There‘s a number of changes in the API of the CFE. The most notable changes are the removal of the Class.rawType getter and the related getters on TypeEnvironment. There’s a number of nullability-aware getters and methods that are added on CoreTypes that should be used instead of the removed getters.
To help avoid the explicit use of legacy types, there are getters on the Library AST node that help with choosing the appropriate nullability for the library depending on its opt-in status for the NNBD feature. Some recommendations are given for using those getters.
In the document the term type parameter is used to describe a formal type parameter of a class, a type alias, or a generic function. For example,X and Y are type parameters in the declaration class A<X, Y> {}. The term type argument is used to describe an actual type parameter in an instance of a generic class or a type alias or an invocation of a generic function or a constructor of a generic class. For example, int and List<String> are type arguments in the expression new Map<int, List<String>>().
The CFE combines various bits of information available at compile time, such as the nullability markers ? used by the programmer and the NNBD opted-in status of the libraries, to mark every DartType in its output as belonging to one of the following four mutually disjoint sets:
? by the programmer. They can also be inferred from other nullable types or synthesized according to the language specification. For example, if the programmer omits the type bound on a type variable in an opted-in library, the CFE should synthesize Object? for the bound.Every DartType subclass implements the nullability getter. The return value of the getter is described by the following enum:
enum Nullability { nullable, nonNullable, undetermined, legacy }
In the textual representation of Kernel that is commonly used in .expect files Nullability.nullable is printed out as ?, Nullability.nonNullable is printed as an empty sequence of characters, Nullability.undetermined is printed as %, and Nullability.legacy is printed as *.
TODO: Add an example of a .expect file.
Nullability.undetermined marks all types that can't be put into any other three categories at compile time and that should be categorized at run time. The primary use case for Nullability.undetermined are type-parameter types with nullable bounds. Consider the following Dart program:
// The enclosing library is opted in. class A<T extends Object?> { foo(T x) { x = null; // Compile-time error. Object y = x; // Compile-time error. bar(T z) {} dynamic f = bar; f?.call(null); // Runtime error? } }
At compile time nothing can be said about the nullability of T because it is possible that at run time either a nullable or non-nullable type will be passed for it. We have to be restrictive and prohibit both assignments of null to variables of type T and assignments of expression values of type T to variables of non-nullable types. However, there are cases when the error can be caught only at run time when the nullability of the type passed for T is known. An example of that is an invocation of a function stored in a variable of type dynamic.
A type-parameter type also has Nullability.undetermined if its bound have Nullability.undetermined. In the following example types T, S, and V are of undetermined nullability:
class B<T extends S, S extends V, V extends Object?> { foo(T t, S s, V v) { // ... } }
Additionally, if the nullability of a type depends on the nullability of an InvalidType, the former is set to Nullability.undetermined for recovery purposes. An example of such dependency is the nullability of a type-parameter type with an InvalidType as the bound of its type parameter. Note that the .nullability getter of InvalidType throws when accessed in order to make sure all such dependencies are treated explicitly.
Substitution of type arguments for occurrences of type parameters, when both the former and the latter have nullability attributes, requires computing the nullability of the substitution result.
In the following table the rows correspond to the possible nullability attributes of the type argument, the columns correspond to the possible nullability attributes of the type parameters, and the table elements contain the nullability for the result of the substitution of a type argument for a type parameter with the corresponding nullabilities.
| arg \ var | ! | ? | * | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | ! | ? | * | ! |
| ? | N/A | ? | ? | ? |
| * | * | ? | * | * |
| % | N/A | ? | * | % |
In the table ! denotes Nullability.nonNullable, ? denotes Nullability.nullable, * denotes Nullability.legacy, and % denotes Nullability.undetermined.
Type-parameter types are assigned their nullabilities as follows:
?, then that type-parameter type is non-nullable. In the following example both X and Y are non-nullable when used as types:class A<X extends Object> { X foo() => null; } typedef F<Y extends int> = Y Function();
?, the resulting type is nullable regardless of the nullability of the bound. In the following example, types of all positional parameters of foo are nullable:class A<X extends Object, Y extends Object?, Z extends Y> { foo(X? x, Y? y, Z? z) {} }
Nullability.legacy regardless of the nullability of the bound. Note that in the following example both X and Y are legacy types despite Y having the nullable type dynamic as the bound.// Assume the library is opted out. class A<X extends int, Y extends dynamic> { foo(X x, Y y) {} }
Nullability.undetermined, and a type-parameter type referring that type parameter isn't marked with ?, then that type-parameter type has Nullability.undetermined. In the following example X, Y, and Z have Nullability.undetermined when used as types:// Note that 'Object?' is provided for the omitted bounds in opted-in libraries. class A<X extends Y, Y extends Z, Z> { foo(X x, Y y, Z z) {} }
All four cases above describe not promoted type-parameter types. Promoted type-parameter types are discussed in section Nullability of Intersection Types.
Type substitution happens both at compile time and at run time. Unaliasing a TypedefType, such as the return type of foo in typedef F<X, Y> = X Function(Y?); F<int?, String> foo() => null;, is an example of type substitution happening at compile time. The corresponding CFE output for the example looks as follows:
library; import self as self; import "dart:core" as core; typedef F<X extends core::Object? = dynamic, contravariant Y extends core::Object? = dynamic> = (Y?) → X%; static method foo() → (core::String?) → core::int? return null;
Note that X has Nullability.undetermined when used as a type in the right-hand side of the typedef declaration. The return type of foo is int? Function(String?), which is the result of substituting X with int? and Y with String in X% Function(Y?).
Obtaining the type for a type check, such as the is-check in the body of foo in the program fragment below, is an example where type substitution is needed at run time.
class A<X> { foo(dynamic bar) => bar is List<X>; }
The elements of the table that are marked with N/A correspond to cases that should be rejected by a type check. The case for type argument having Nullability.nullable and the type parameter having Nullability.nonNullable should result in a type error because a nullable type can't be a subtype of a non-nullable type. Similar is true for the argument that have Nullability.undetermined and the type parameter that have Nullability.nonNullable because at run time Nullability.undetermined can be replaced with Nullability.nullable.
The substitution routines in pkg/kernel/lib/type_algebra.dart follow the nullability computation rules described above.
In Kernel TypeParameterType represents types of two kinds. The primary purpose of the node is to denote an occurrence of a type parameter in another type, which can be the entire type in the simplest case. The secondary purpose of TypeParameterType is to represent a limited intersection type that arises from type promotion of variables declared with a TypeParameterType. In the latter case the overall nullability of the intersection type is computed from the nullabilities of the left-hand side of the intersection (referred to as LHS below) and the right-hand side of the intersection (referred to as RHS below).
In the following table the rows correspond to the possible nullability attributes of the LHS, the columns correspond to the possible nullability attributes of the RHS, and the table elements contain the nullability of the intersection type of two types with the corresponding nullabilities.
| LHS \ RHS | ! | ? | * | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | ! | N/A | N/A | ! |
| ? | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| * | N/A | N/A | * | N/A |
| % | ! | % | N/A | % |
In the table ! denotes Nullability.nonNullable, ? denotes Nullability.nullable, * denotes Nullability.legacy, and % denotes Nullability.undetermined.
The table elements marked with N/A represent combinations that can't be a part of a well-formed CFE output. Some of them are due to the restriction on the intersection type that the RHS of the intersection should be a subtype of the bound of the type variable, and some others are due to the restriction that a nullable type is never promoted to an intersection type.
The intersection is induced by some of the type promotions, such as the one in the example below.
class A<T extends num?> { foo(T t) { if (t is int?) { var bar = t; } } }
The type of the variable t in the example is promoted from T to T & int? because the RHS of the intersection, namely int?, is a subtype of the bound of T, which is num?. In Kernel T has Nullability.undetermined because the bound of T is nullable, and the intersection type with the nullabilities of all its parts looks like T% & int?. The following is the textual representation of the program from the example above compiled by the CFE.
library; import self as self; import "dart:core" as core; class A<T extends core::num? = core::num?> extends core::Object { synthetic constructor •() → self::A<self::A::T*>* : super core::Object::•() ; method foo(generic-covariant-impl self::A::T% t) → dynamic { if(t is core::int?) { self::A::T% & core::int? /* '%' & '?' = '%' */ bar = t{self::A::T% & core::int? /* '%' & '?' = '%' */}; } } }
Note that the type of t, which is written in the curly braces right after the getter, inside of the promoting if-statement is an intersection type with self::A::T% as the LHS and core::int? as the RHS. The comments generated by the textual serializer show the computation of the overall nullability of the intersection type from the nullabilities of its components.
Instead of having the overall nullability on the TypeParameterType object, only the nullability of the LHS is serialized as the field TypeParameterType.typeParameterTypeNullability, and the overall nullability is computed in the TypeParameterType.nullability getter. The back ends that perform their own deserialization may want to implement the computation of the overall nullability following that in the TypeParameterType.nullability getter.
Named parameters can be declared using the required keyword. To reflect the use of the keyword the CFE sets the isRequired flag on VariableDeclaration and NamedType nodes.
The isRequired flag on VariableDeclaration is set if the node encodes a named formal parameter and the required keyword was used.
The use of the required keyword affects the override rules and the subtyping relationship for function types. To reflect the use of the keyword in a function type, the isRequired flag is set on the corresponding NamedType representing the type of the named parameter.
Fields and variables can be declared using the late keyword. To reflect the use of the keyword the CFE sets the isLate flag on Field and VariableDeclaration nodes.
An optional desugaring of late fields and variables is provided to aid the initial implementation of the feature. The desugaring is enabled if Target.supportsLateFields returns false.
There are 8 variants of the encoding based on whether type of the field is potentially nullable, whether the field is final and whether the field has an initializer.
If a late field is non-nullable, its value is stored in a private nullable field and a field value of null signals that the field is uninitialized. Otherwise if a late field is potentially nullable, an additional boolean _#isSet# field is generated to tracking whether the field has been initialized.
A potentially nullable late non-final field:
late T? x;
is encoded as
bool _#x#isSet = false;
T? _#x;
T? get x => _#x#isSet ? _#x : throw new StateError("Field 'x' has not been initialized.");
void set x(T? value) {
_#x#isSet = true;
_#x = value;
}
A potentially nullable late final field without an initializer
late final T? x;
is encoded as
bool _#x#isSet = false;
T? _#x;
T? get x => _#x#isSet ? _#x : throw new StateError("Field 'x' has not been initialized.");
void set x(T? value) {
if (_#x#isSet) {
throw new StateError('Field x has already been initialized.');
} else {
_#x#isSet = true;
_#x = value;
}
}
A potentially nullable late field with initializer <exp>
late T? x = <exp>;
is encoded as
bool _#x#isSet = false;
T? _#x;
T? get x {
if (!_#x#isSet) {
_#x#isSet = true;
_#x = <exp>;
}
return _#x
}
void set x(T? value) {
_#x#isSet = true
_#x = value;
}
A potentially nullable late final field with initializer <exp>
late final T? x = <exp>;
is encoded as
bool _#x#isSet = false;
T? _#x;
T? get x {
if (!_#x#isSet) {
_#x#isSet = true;
_#x = <exp>;
}
return _#x;
}
A non-nullable late non-final field:
late T x;
is encoded as
T? _#x;
T get x => let T? # = _#x in # == null ? throw new StateError("Field 'x' has not been initialized.") : #;
void set x(T value) {
_#x = value;
}
The reason for using a let expression here, is that while the private field is nullable, the temporary variable in the let expression will be promoted to a non-nullable type when checking against null, thus ensuring that the returned value is soundly non-nullable, also when analyzing the kernel ast itself.
A non-nullable late final field without an initializer
late final T x;
is encoded as
T? _#x;
T get x => let T? # = _#x in # == null ? throw new StateError("Field 'x' has not been initialized.") : #;
void set x(T value) {
if (_#x == null) {
_#x = value;
} else {
throw new StateError("Field 'x' has already been initialized.");
}
}
A non-nullable late field with initializer <exp>
late T x = <exp>;
is encoded as
T? _#x;
T get x => let T? # = _#x in # == null ? _#x = <exp> : #;
void set x(T value) {
_#x = value;
}
A non-nullable late final field with initializer <exp>
late final T x = <exp>;
is encoded as
T? _#x; T get x => let T? # = _#x in # == null ? _#x = <exp> : _#x;
A late local variable is encoded similarly to a late field. Local functions are created which correspond to the getters and setters for late fields.
For instance, a nullable late local without initializer
method() {
late T? x;
<lhs> = x;
variable = <rhs>;
}
is encoded as
method() {
bool #x#isSet = false;
T? #x;
T? #x#get() => #x#isSet ? #x : throw new StateError("Local 'x' has not been initialized.")
T? #x#set(T? value) {
_#x#isSet = true;
return _#x = value;
}
<lhs> = #x#get.call();
#x#set.call(<rhs>);
}
A field initialization of late nullable instance field
class Class {
late T? x;
Class.a();
Class.b(this.x);
Class.c() : x = <exp>;
}
is encoded as
class Class {
bool _#x#isSet = false;
T? _#x;
Class.a();
Class.b(T x) : _#x#isSet true, _#x = x;
Class.c() : _#x#isSet = true, _#x = <exp>;
}
A field initialization of late non-nullable instance field
class Class {
late T x;
Class.a();
Class.b(this.x);
Class.c() : x = <exp>;
}
is encoded as
class Class {
T? _#x;
Class.a();
Class.b(T x) : _#x = x;
Class.b() : _#x = <exp>;
}
TODO: Update the section.
TODO: Update the section as API changes.
DartType.nullability is added to DartType and the implementations are added to the subclasses (fields for InterfaceType, FunctionType, TypedefType, and TypeParameterType, concrete getter for TypeParameterType).Nullability.legacy is passed for the parameter.TypeParameterType.typeParameterTypeNullability is added. For details see section Nullability of Intersection Types of this document.TypeParameterType.computeNullabilityFromBound is added.DartType.withNullability method is added to DartType and is implemented in its subclasses. The method takes a single parameter, the desired nullability, and returns the type that is the receiver with the given nullability. If the receiver already has the nullability that is passed in as the parameter, the receiver object itself is returned, and a copy isn't created. If the types that are represented by a particular DartType subclass always have a certain nullability, like dynamic or void, invocations of withNullability on them always return the receiver.SubtypeCheckMode enum is added. It has two values corresponding to the two modes for type checks: SubtypeCheckMode.withNullabilities corresponds to the mode where the nullability modifiers on the types are taken into the account according to the specification for the subtype relation, and SubtypeCheckMode.ignoringNullabilities corresponds to the mode where the nullability markers are ignored as if the check was made on pre-NNBD types.SubtypeTester.isSubtypeOf is updated to receive additional parameter, a SubtypeCheckMode.IsSubtypeOf class is added. It represents a result of a nullability-aware type check. Objects of IsSubtypeOf can further be queried for whether the checked types are in the subtype relation when the nullability modifiers are taken into account (using IsSubtypeOf.isSubtypeWhenUsingNullabilities) or when the modifiers are ignored (using IsSubtypeOf.isSubtypeWhenIgnoringNullabilities).SubtypeTester.performNullabilityAwareSubtypeCheck method is added. It takes two types as input and produces a result of type IsSubtypeOf. Using SubtypeTester.performNullabilityAwareSubtypeCheck is recommended for performance considerations if a call site needs to differentiate between NNBD and pre-NNBD cases.DartType called NeverType is added to represent type Never. It is a subtype of all Dart types. It's different from BottomType already present in Kernel; the latter is reserved for other purposes with the addition to the subtyping rules that BottomType is a subtype of NeverType.DartTypeVisitor and DartTypeVisitor1 visitors are updated to include visitNeverType methods. All implementations of the interfaces of DartTypeVisitor and DartTypeVisitor1 are updated to include implementations of visitNeverType.VariableDeclaration.isRequired setter and getter are added.NamedType.isRequired final field is added.VariableDeclaration.isLate setter and getter are added.Field.isLate setter and getter are added.NullCheck AST node is added.Class.rawType is removed.TypeEnvironment.*Type where * expands to object, bool, int, num, double, string, symbol, type, rawFunction are removed.CoreTypes.*NonNullableRawType, CoreTypes.*NullableRawType, CoreTypes.*LegacyRawType, and CoreTypes.*RawType(Nullability) where * expands into object, bool, int, num, double, string, list, set, map, iterable, iterator, symbol, type, function, invocation, invocationMirror, future, stackTrace, stream, asyncAwaitCompleter, futureOr, and pragma are added.CoreTypes.nullType is added.CoreTypes.nonNullableRawType(Class), CoreTypes.nullableRawType(Class), CoreTypes.legacyRawType(Class), and CoreTypes.rawType(Class, Nullability) are added.The reason for the changes is to avoid having type objects of undefined nullability and have nullability-aware getters and methods for retrieving the types instead. The changes that landed the update (commit 515a5977, commit e034104f) also change the client code so that a legacy type is retrieved from CoreTypes whenever there was an invocation of Class.rawType. All of those places should be updated to retrieve a type with the desired nullability (see section Updating the Client Code).
Library.isNonNullableByDefault is added.Library.nullable, Library.nonNullable, and Library.nullableIfTrue(bool) are added.The Library.isNonNullableByDefault getter is added to distinguish between opted-in and opted-out libraries. Right now it returns true if the non-nullable experiment is enabled, and false otherwise.
The Library.nullable and Library.nonNullable getters are added to simplify the reasoning about types in the CFE and in the client code. They return Nullability.nullable and Nullability.nonNullable respectively if the library is opted in, and both return Nullability.legacy otherwise. Thus, one may only consider what nullability would be desirable in an opted-in library and have the case of opted-out library covered by the getters.
Similarly, Library.nullableIfTrue(bool) converts a boolean into a Nullability value: true is converted into Nullability.nullable and false is converted into Nullability.nonNullable if the library is opted in. If the library is opted out, Library.nullableIfTrue(bool) returns Nullability.legacy.
This set of members makes it possible to avoid the explicit use of Nullability.legacy in the CFE and the client code.
As described in section Nullability attribute on types, all previously existing invocations of the constructors of InterfaceType, TypedefType, TypeParameterType, and FunctionType were given additional argument that specifies the nullability of the created type; Nullability.legacy was used in the cases that weren't migrated to the NNBD semantics yet. Additionally, as described in section Changes in caching of raw types, all previously existing invocations of Class.rawType and of the related getters of TypeEnvironment were replaced with invocations of nullability-aware members of CoreTypes. To keep the observable behavior of the client code, legacy types were used wherever before a raw type was used. For example, intClass.rawType was replaced with coreTypes.intLegacyRawType and cls.rawType was replaced with coreTypes.legacyRawType(cls). All of those call sites should be updated as a part of the NNBD feature implementation because they are the source of legacy types regardless of the opted-in status of the library they are generated for. Section Library status and library-specific nullability treatment describes the changes in the CFE public interface that are supposed to help with the process.
The easiest way to avoid using explicitly legacy types is to do the following:
.nullable or .nonNullable getter on the library node of the library that the type is used in. In some cases, when a boolean condition tells if a type should be nullable, .nullableIfTrue(bool) method on the library node may be useful.Quick recommendations for updating the described code are listed below. The examples use Nullability.nonNullable as the desired nullability.
coreTypes.intLegacyRawType with coreTypes.intRawType(library.nonNullable). Similarly for other built-in types.coreTypes.legacyRawType(cls) with coreTypes.rawType(cls, library.nonNullable).coreTypes.rawType(cls, Nullability.legacy) with coreTypes.rawType(cls, library.nonNullable).new InterfaceType(cls, Nullability.legacy, typeArgs) with new InterfaceType(cls, library.nonNullable, typeArgs).new InterfaceType(cls, Nullability.legacy) with new InterfaceType(cls, library.nonNullable).new InterfaceType.byReference(clsRef, Nullability.legacy, typeArgs) with new InterfaceType.byReference(clsRef, library.nonNullable, typeArgs).new FunctionType(positional, retType, Nullability.legacy, <NAMED>) with new FunctionType(positional, retType, library.nonNullable, <NAMED>) where <NAMED> are the named arguments passed in.new TypedefType(tdef, Nullability.legacy, typeArgs) with new TypedefType(tdef, library.nonNullable, typeArgs).new TypedefType(tdef, Nullability.legacy) with new TypedefType(tdef, library.nonNullable).new TypedefType.byReference(tdefRef, Nullability.legacy, typeArgs) with new TypedefType.byReference(tdefRef, library.nonNullable, typeArgs).The code updated this way will generate nullable and non-nullable types as desired for the opted-in libraries and will generate legacy types for the opted-out libraries. It should also be easy to deprecate the weak-NNBD mode for such code: Library.nonNullable and Library.nullable will start returning the corresponding nullability constants.
As described in section Subtype queries, SubtypeTester.isSubtypeOf now accepts additional parameter, a SubtypeCheckMode. The parameter is required to clearly indicate the mode of checking, and is initially set to SubtypeCheckMode.ignoringNullabilities at all call sites within CFE and in the client code.
As a part of implementing the NNBD feature, all such call sites need to take the nullability attributes into account. In the weak null checking mode all errors that originate from the NNBD-related changes should be treated as warnings. For some of the call sites it means that they should differentiate between two situations: whether one type is a subtype of the other type with nullabilities taken into account or only if the nullability modifiers are ignored.
One way to make the differentiation is to invoke isSubtypeOf twice. The first time it is invoked with SubtypeCheckMode.withNullabilities as the mode. If it returns true, the subtype check succeeds when the nullability modifiers are taken into account and it would have succeeded also if the modifiers were ignored. It means that neither warning nor error should be reported if it was dependent on the result of the type check.
If isSubtypeOf returns false when the mode is SubtypeCheckMode.withNullabilities, it is still possible that the check fails only because of the nullability modifiers. To check if it's true, another invocation of isSubtypeOf can be made with SubtypeCheckMode.ignoringNullabilities as the third parameter. If the result is true, the subtype check fails only because of the nullability modifiers, and a warning should be reported. If the result is false, the check fails in both modes, and an error should be reported.
To save some computations, a single invocation of performNullabilityAwareSubtypeCheck can be made instead of the two invocations of isSubtypeOf. The method takes two types as the input and returns an object of IsSubtypeOf as the result. The return value of the method can further be queried to determine if an error or a warning should be reported. If invocation of IsSubtypeOf.isSubtypeWhenUsingNullabilities returns true, the two types are in the subtype relation in both modes, and neither error nor warning should be reported. If it returns false, the failure may be due to the nullability modifiers. To differentiate between the two possibilities, an invocation of IsSubtypeOf.isSubtypeWhenIgnoringNullabilities can be made. If the result is true, a warning should be issued; otherwise, an error should be reported.
As described in section Nullability of Intersection Types, objects of TypeParameterType implement .nullability as a getter, not a field, and the overall nullability value for the type is not serialized in the binary format. The back ends that implement their own deserialization may need to compute the nullability for TypeParameterTypes.
Following the introduction of NeverType, all implementors of DartTypeVisitor and DartTypeVisitor1 should implement their new methods, visitNeverType. Reasonable implementations are provided in the CL adding NeverType, and they might need to be revisited.
TODO: Update the section.