Compiling a program that contains a type evidence parameter in Scala (such as T <:< U) can cause a warning when -Ywarn-unused is passed to the compiler. Especially in the case when the type evidence parameter is used to verify a constraint encoded using phantom types, this warning is likely to occur.
As an example, compiling the file here: https://github.com/hseeberger/demo-phantom-types/blob/master/src/main/scala/de/heikoseeberger/demophantomtypes/Hacker.scala returns the following:
# scalac -Ywarn-unused Hacker.scala
Hacker.scala:42: warning: parameter value ev in method hackOn is never used
def hackOn(implicit ev: IsCaffeinated[S]): Hacker[State.Decaffeinated] = {
^
Hacker.scala:47: warning: parameter value ev in method drinkCoffee is never used
def drinkCoffee(implicit ev: IsDecaffeinated[S]): Hacker[State.Caffeinated] = {
^
two warnings found
It's clear to me that the parameter ev is not actually necessary at runtime, but the parameter is useful at compile time. Is there any way to instruct the compiler to ignore this case, while still raising the warning for unused function parameters in other contexts?
For example, I think instructing the compiler to ignore implicit parameters of class <:< or =:= would solve this issue, but I'm not sure how that could be accomplished.
Many years later, it's worth to mention there is am @unused annotation available (since when, I am not sure):
import scala.annotation.unused
def drinkCoffee(implicit @unused ev: IsDecaffeinated[S]): Hacker[State.Caffeinated]
Consequently, you can not use a context-bounds