mirror of
https://github.com/Noratrieb/blog.git
synced 2026-01-14 12:35:00 +01:00
deploy: 47f40f231a
This commit is contained in:
Nilstrieb
parent
11964435c0
commit
c457ac16c5
14 changed files with 807 additions and 10 deletions
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
|
||||||
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><meta name=generator content="Hugo 0.111.3"><title>nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>Box Is a Unique Type</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2022-07-23</span>
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><meta name=generator content="Hugo 0.111.3"><title>nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>Item Patterns And Struct Else</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2023-03-17</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
|
#<a href=/tags/language-design/>language-design</a> </span><div class=post-content>Bringing more expressiveness to our items</div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>→</a></div></div><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>Box Is a Unique Type</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2022-07-23</span>
|
||||||
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
#<a href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code</a> </span><div class=post-content>About better aliasing semantics for <code>Box<T></code></div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
#<a href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code</a> </span><div class=post-content>About better aliasing semantics for <code>Box<T></code></div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
165
index.xml
165
index.xml
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,167 @@
|
||||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>nilstriebs blog</title><link>/</link><description>Recent content on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Box Is a Unique Type</title><link>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</guid><description>We have all used Box&lt;T&gt; before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more than that!
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>nilstriebs blog</title><link>/</link><description>Recent content on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Item Patterns And Struct Else</title><link>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</link><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</guid><description>Pattern matching One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!
|
||||||
|
enum ItemKind { Struct(String, Vec&lt;Field&gt;), Function(String, Body), } impl ItemKind { fn name(&amp;self) -&gt; &amp;str { match self { Self::Struct(name, _) =&gt; name, Self::Function(name, _) =&gt; name, } } } Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this.</description><content><h1 id="pattern-matching">Pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">enum</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">ItemKind</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Struct(String, Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Function(String, Body),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> ItemKind {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">name</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self) -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">match</span> self {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Struct(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Function(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this. In C, this would be very unsafe, as we cannot be guaranteed that our union has the right tag.
|
||||||
|
But in Rust, the compiler nicely checks it all for us. It&rsquo;s safe and expressive (just like many other features of Rust).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But that isn&rsquo;t the only way to use pattern matching. While branching is one of its core features (in that sense, pattern matching is just like git),
|
||||||
|
it doesn&rsquo;t always have to be used. Another major advantage of pattern matching lies in the ability to <em>exhaustively</em> (not be be confused with exhausting, like writing down brilliant ideas like this) match over inputs.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s look at the following example. Here, we have a struct representing a struct in a programming language. It has a name and fields.
|
||||||
|
We then manually implement a custom hash trait for it because we are important and need a custom hash trait. We could have written a derive macro, but didn&rsquo;t because
|
||||||
|
we don&rsquo;t understand how proc macros work.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Struct</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This works perfectly. But then later, <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/pull/1642">we add privacy to the language</a>. Now, all types have a visibility.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-diff" data-lang="diff"><span style="display:flex;"><span>struct Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e">+ visibility: Vis,
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e"></span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec&lt;Field&gt;,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Pretty cool. Now no one can access the implementation details and make everything a mess. But wait - we have just made a mess! We didn&rsquo;t hash the visibility!
|
||||||
|
Hashing something incorrectly <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/84970">doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad</a>, but it would be nice if this was prevented.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Thanks to exhaustive pattern matching, it would have been easy to prevent. We just change our hash implementation:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Self { name, fields } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> self;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>And with this, adding the visibility will cause a compiler error and alert us that we need to handle it in hashing.
|
||||||
|
(The decision whether we actually do want to handle it is still up to us. We could also just turn off the computer and make new friends outside.)</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can conclude that pattern matching is a great feature.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="limitations-of-pattern-matching">Limitations of pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>But there is one big limitation of pattern matching - all of its occurrences (<code>match</code>, <code>if let</code>, <code>if let</code> chains, <code>while let</code>, <code>while let</code> chains, <code>for</code>, <code>let</code>, <code>let else</code>, and function parameters
|
||||||
|
(we do have a lot of pattern matching)) are inside of bodies, mostly as part of expressions or statements.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad. This is where the executed code resides. But it comes at a cost of consistency. We often add many syntactical niceties to expressions and statements, but forget about items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="items-and-sadness">Items and sadness</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>Items have a hard life. They are the parents of everything important. <code>struct</code>, <code>enum</code>, <code>const</code>, <code>mod</code>, <code>fn</code>, <code>union</code>, <code>global_asm</code> are all things we use daily, yet their grammar is very limited. (&ldquo;free the items&rdquo; was an alternative blog post title, although &ldquo;freeing&rdquo; generally remains a concern of <a href="https://nilstrieb.github.io/nilstrieb-c-style-guide-edition-2/">my C style guide</a>).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>For example, see the following code where we declare a few constants.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const TWO: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const THREE: u8 = 3;
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>There is nothing obviously wrong with this code. You understand it, I understand it, an ALGOL 68 developer from 1970 would probably understand it
|
||||||
|
and even an ancient greek philosopher might have a clue (which is impressive, given that they are all not alive anymore). But this is the kind of code that pages you at 4 AM.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>You&rsquo;ve read the last paragraph in confusion. Of course there&rsquo;s something wrong with this code! <code>TWO</code> is <code>1</code>, yet the name strongly suggests that it should be <code>2</code>. And you&rsquo;d
|
||||||
|
be right, this was just a check to make sure you&rsquo;re still here. You are very clever and deserve this post. If you didn&rsquo;t notice it, go to sleep. It&rsquo;s good for your health.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But even if it was <code>2</code>, this code is still not good. There is way too much duplication! <code>const</code> is mentioned three times. This is a major distraction to the reader.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s have a harder example:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 0; const
|
||||||
|
NAME: &amp;
|
||||||
|
str = &#34;nils&#34;;
|
||||||
|
const X: &amp;str
|
||||||
|
= &#34;const&#34;;const A: () = ();
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>Here, the <code>const</code> being noise is a lot more obvious. Did you see that <code>X</code> contains <code>&quot;const&quot;</code>? Maybe you did, maybe you didn&rsquo;t. When I tested it, 0/0 people could see it.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Now imagine if it looked like this:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> (<span style="color:#66d9ef">ONE</span>, <span style="color:#66d9ef">NAME</span>, X, A): (<span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, ()) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> (<span style="color:#ae81ff">0</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;nils&#34;</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;const&#34;</span>, ());
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Everything is way shorter and more readable.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>What you&rsquo;ve just seen is a limited form of pattern matching!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="lets-go-further">Let&rsquo;s go further</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>The idea of generalizing pattern matching is very powerful. We can apply this to more than just consts.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> (Person, Car) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> ({ name: String }, { wheels: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> });
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we create two structs with just a single <code>struct</code> keyword. This makes it way simpler and easier to read when related structs are declared.
|
||||||
|
So far we&rsquo;ve just used tuples. But we can go even further. Structs of structs!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span><span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>T, U<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">T</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">U</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span> { parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Ferris</span>, child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> Household {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: { name: String },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: { name: String, unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Now we can nicely match on the <code>Household</code> struct containing the definition of the <code>Ferris</code> and <code>Corro</code> structs. This is equivalent to the following code:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Feris</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This is already really neat, but there&rsquo;s more. We also have to consider the falliblity of patterns.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None;
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This pattern doesn&rsquo;t match. Inside bodies, we could use an <code>if let</code>:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Some(a) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>We can also apply this to items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A exists */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A doesn&#39;t exist */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too useful, but it allows for extreme flexibility!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span>macro_rules<span style="color:#f92672">!</span> are_same_type {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> (<span style="color:#75715e">$a</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>, <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> {{
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">mut</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">false</span>;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$a</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> _: () <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">true</span>; };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }};
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> are_same_type!(Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>String<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>, String) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> println!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;impossible to reach!&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Ignoring this suspicious assignment to a <code>static mut</code>, this is lovely!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can go further.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Today, items are just there with no ordering. What if we imposed an ordering? (and just like this, the C11 atomic model was born.) What if &ldquo;Rust items&rdquo; was a meta scripting language?</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can write a simple guessing game!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">fn</span> input() -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> prompt!();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> Ok(<span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>): Result<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, ParseIntErr<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>.parse() <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;Invalid input&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> env!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;RANDOM&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">loop</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> input();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">==</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">break</span>; <span style="color:#75715e">// continue compilation
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is smaller&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is bigger&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">// Empty. I am useless. I strike!
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>If it weren&rsquo;t for <code>fn main</code> starting a strike and stopping compilation, this would have worked! Quite bold of <code>fn main</code> to just start a strike, even though there&rsquo;s no <code>union</code> in the entire program. But we really need it, it&rsquo;s not a disposable worker.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>And then, last and least I want to highlight one of my favourite consequences of this: <code>struct else</code></p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(Test) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;didn&#39;t match pattern&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p><!-- raw HTML omitted -->you&rsquo;re asking yourself what you just read. meanwhile, i am asking myself what i just wrote. we are very similar.<!-- raw HTML omitted --></p></content></item><item><title>Box Is a Unique Type</title><link>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</guid><description>We have all used Box&lt;T&gt; before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more than that!
|
||||||
struct Fields { a: String, b: String, } let fields = Box::new(Fields { a: &#34;a&#34;.to_string(), b: &#34;b&#34;.to_string() }); let a = fields.a; let b = fields.b; This kind of partial deref move is just one of the spectacular magic tricks box has up its sleeve, and they exist for good reason: They are very useful.</description><content><p>We have all used <code>Box&lt;T&gt;</code> before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics
|
struct Fields { a: String, b: String, } let fields = Box::new(Fields { a: &#34;a&#34;.to_string(), b: &#34;b&#34;.to_string() }); let a = fields.a; let b = fields.b; This kind of partial deref move is just one of the spectacular magic tricks box has up its sleeve, and they exist for good reason: They are very useful.</description><content><p>We have all used <code>Box&lt;T&gt;</code> before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics
|
||||||
and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more
|
and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more
|
||||||
than that!</p>
|
than that!</p>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
@ -131,6 +131,7 @@ are very strong, and still giving code an option to obtain these seems useful. O
|
||||||
<code>&'static mut T</code> that is unleaked for drop, but the semantics of this are still <a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/unsafe-code-guidelines/issues/316>unclear</a>.
|
<code>&'static mut T</code> that is unleaked for drop, but the semantics of this are still <a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/unsafe-code-guidelines/issues/316>unclear</a>.
|
||||||
If that is not possible, exposing <code>std::ptr::Unique</code> (with it getting boxes aliasing semantics) could be desirable. For this, all existing usages of <code>Unique</code>
|
If that is not possible, exposing <code>std::ptr::Unique</code> (with it getting boxes aliasing semantics) could be desirable. For this, all existing usages of <code>Unique</code>
|
||||||
inside the standard library would have to be removed. We could also offer a <code>std::boxed::UniqueBox</code> that keeps the current semantics, but this would also bring direct aliasing
|
inside the standard library would have to be removed. We could also offer a <code>std::boxed::UniqueBox</code> that keeps the current semantics, but this would also bring direct aliasing
|
||||||
decisions more towards safe code, which I am not a huge fan of. Ownership is enough already.</p><p>I guess what I am wishing for are some good and flexible raw pointer types. But that’s still in the stars…</p><p>For more information about this topic, see <a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/unsafe-code-guidelines/issues/326>https://github.com/rust-lang/unsafe-code-guidelines/issues/326</a></p><p><em>Thanks to the nice people on the Rust Community Discord for their feedback on the draft of this post!</em></p></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
decisions more towards safe code, which I am not a huge fan of. Ownership is enough already.</p><p>I guess what I am wishing for are some good and flexible raw pointer types. But that’s still in the stars…</p><p>For more information about this topic, see <a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/unsafe-code-guidelines/issues/326>https://github.com/rust-lang/unsafe-code-guidelines/issues/326</a></p><p><em>Thanks to the nice people on the Rust Community Discord for their feedback on the draft of this post!</em></p></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__title><span class=pagination__title-h></span><hr></div><div class=pagination__buttons><span class="button previous"><a href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/><span class=button__icon>←</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=button__text>Item Patterns And Struct Else</span></a></span></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
<script src=/assets/prism.js></script></div></body></html>
|
<script src=/assets/prism.js></script></div></body></html>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
|
||||||
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>Posts :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/posts/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="Posts"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/posts/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/posts/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>Box Is a Unique Type</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2022-07-23</span>
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>Posts :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/posts/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="Posts"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/posts/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/posts/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>Item Patterns And Struct Else</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2023-03-17</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
|
#<a href=/tags/language-design/>language-design</a> </span><div class=post-content>Bringing more expressiveness to our items</div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>→</a></div></div><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>Box Is a Unique Type</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2022-07-23</span>
|
||||||
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
#<a href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code</a> </span><div class=post-content>About better aliasing semantics for <code>Box<T></code></div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
#<a href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code</a> </span><div class=post-content>About better aliasing semantics for <code>Box<T></code></div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
165
posts/index.xml
165
posts/index.xml
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,167 @@
|
||||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Posts on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/posts/</link><description>Recent content in Posts on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/posts/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Box Is a Unique Type</title><link>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</guid><description>We have all used Box&lt;T&gt; before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more than that!
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Posts on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/posts/</link><description>Recent content in Posts on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/posts/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Item Patterns And Struct Else</title><link>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</link><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</guid><description>Pattern matching One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!
|
||||||
|
enum ItemKind { Struct(String, Vec&lt;Field&gt;), Function(String, Body), } impl ItemKind { fn name(&amp;self) -&gt; &amp;str { match self { Self::Struct(name, _) =&gt; name, Self::Function(name, _) =&gt; name, } } } Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this.</description><content><h1 id="pattern-matching">Pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">enum</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">ItemKind</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Struct(String, Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Function(String, Body),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> ItemKind {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">name</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self) -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">match</span> self {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Struct(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Function(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this. In C, this would be very unsafe, as we cannot be guaranteed that our union has the right tag.
|
||||||
|
But in Rust, the compiler nicely checks it all for us. It&rsquo;s safe and expressive (just like many other features of Rust).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But that isn&rsquo;t the only way to use pattern matching. While branching is one of its core features (in that sense, pattern matching is just like git),
|
||||||
|
it doesn&rsquo;t always have to be used. Another major advantage of pattern matching lies in the ability to <em>exhaustively</em> (not be be confused with exhausting, like writing down brilliant ideas like this) match over inputs.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s look at the following example. Here, we have a struct representing a struct in a programming language. It has a name and fields.
|
||||||
|
We then manually implement a custom hash trait for it because we are important and need a custom hash trait. We could have written a derive macro, but didn&rsquo;t because
|
||||||
|
we don&rsquo;t understand how proc macros work.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Struct</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This works perfectly. But then later, <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/pull/1642">we add privacy to the language</a>. Now, all types have a visibility.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-diff" data-lang="diff"><span style="display:flex;"><span>struct Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e">+ visibility: Vis,
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e"></span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec&lt;Field&gt;,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Pretty cool. Now no one can access the implementation details and make everything a mess. But wait - we have just made a mess! We didn&rsquo;t hash the visibility!
|
||||||
|
Hashing something incorrectly <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/84970">doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad</a>, but it would be nice if this was prevented.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Thanks to exhaustive pattern matching, it would have been easy to prevent. We just change our hash implementation:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Self { name, fields } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> self;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>And with this, adding the visibility will cause a compiler error and alert us that we need to handle it in hashing.
|
||||||
|
(The decision whether we actually do want to handle it is still up to us. We could also just turn off the computer and make new friends outside.)</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can conclude that pattern matching is a great feature.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="limitations-of-pattern-matching">Limitations of pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>But there is one big limitation of pattern matching - all of its occurrences (<code>match</code>, <code>if let</code>, <code>if let</code> chains, <code>while let</code>, <code>while let</code> chains, <code>for</code>, <code>let</code>, <code>let else</code>, and function parameters
|
||||||
|
(we do have a lot of pattern matching)) are inside of bodies, mostly as part of expressions or statements.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad. This is where the executed code resides. But it comes at a cost of consistency. We often add many syntactical niceties to expressions and statements, but forget about items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="items-and-sadness">Items and sadness</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>Items have a hard life. They are the parents of everything important. <code>struct</code>, <code>enum</code>, <code>const</code>, <code>mod</code>, <code>fn</code>, <code>union</code>, <code>global_asm</code> are all things we use daily, yet their grammar is very limited. (&ldquo;free the items&rdquo; was an alternative blog post title, although &ldquo;freeing&rdquo; generally remains a concern of <a href="https://nilstrieb.github.io/nilstrieb-c-style-guide-edition-2/">my C style guide</a>).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>For example, see the following code where we declare a few constants.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const TWO: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const THREE: u8 = 3;
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>There is nothing obviously wrong with this code. You understand it, I understand it, an ALGOL 68 developer from 1970 would probably understand it
|
||||||
|
and even an ancient greek philosopher might have a clue (which is impressive, given that they are all not alive anymore). But this is the kind of code that pages you at 4 AM.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>You&rsquo;ve read the last paragraph in confusion. Of course there&rsquo;s something wrong with this code! <code>TWO</code> is <code>1</code>, yet the name strongly suggests that it should be <code>2</code>. And you&rsquo;d
|
||||||
|
be right, this was just a check to make sure you&rsquo;re still here. You are very clever and deserve this post. If you didn&rsquo;t notice it, go to sleep. It&rsquo;s good for your health.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But even if it was <code>2</code>, this code is still not good. There is way too much duplication! <code>const</code> is mentioned three times. This is a major distraction to the reader.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s have a harder example:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 0; const
|
||||||
|
NAME: &amp;
|
||||||
|
str = &#34;nils&#34;;
|
||||||
|
const X: &amp;str
|
||||||
|
= &#34;const&#34;;const A: () = ();
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>Here, the <code>const</code> being noise is a lot more obvious. Did you see that <code>X</code> contains <code>&quot;const&quot;</code>? Maybe you did, maybe you didn&rsquo;t. When I tested it, 0/0 people could see it.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Now imagine if it looked like this:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> (<span style="color:#66d9ef">ONE</span>, <span style="color:#66d9ef">NAME</span>, X, A): (<span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, ()) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> (<span style="color:#ae81ff">0</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;nils&#34;</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;const&#34;</span>, ());
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Everything is way shorter and more readable.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>What you&rsquo;ve just seen is a limited form of pattern matching!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="lets-go-further">Let&rsquo;s go further</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>The idea of generalizing pattern matching is very powerful. We can apply this to more than just consts.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> (Person, Car) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> ({ name: String }, { wheels: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> });
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we create two structs with just a single <code>struct</code> keyword. This makes it way simpler and easier to read when related structs are declared.
|
||||||
|
So far we&rsquo;ve just used tuples. But we can go even further. Structs of structs!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span><span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>T, U<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">T</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">U</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span> { parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Ferris</span>, child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> Household {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: { name: String },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: { name: String, unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Now we can nicely match on the <code>Household</code> struct containing the definition of the <code>Ferris</code> and <code>Corro</code> structs. This is equivalent to the following code:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Feris</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This is already really neat, but there&rsquo;s more. We also have to consider the falliblity of patterns.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None;
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This pattern doesn&rsquo;t match. Inside bodies, we could use an <code>if let</code>:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Some(a) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>We can also apply this to items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A exists */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A doesn&#39;t exist */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too useful, but it allows for extreme flexibility!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span>macro_rules<span style="color:#f92672">!</span> are_same_type {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> (<span style="color:#75715e">$a</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>, <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> {{
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">mut</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">false</span>;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$a</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> _: () <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">true</span>; };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }};
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> are_same_type!(Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>String<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>, String) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> println!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;impossible to reach!&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Ignoring this suspicious assignment to a <code>static mut</code>, this is lovely!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can go further.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Today, items are just there with no ordering. What if we imposed an ordering? (and just like this, the C11 atomic model was born.) What if &ldquo;Rust items&rdquo; was a meta scripting language?</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can write a simple guessing game!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">fn</span> input() -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> prompt!();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> Ok(<span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>): Result<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, ParseIntErr<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>.parse() <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;Invalid input&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> env!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;RANDOM&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">loop</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> input();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">==</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">break</span>; <span style="color:#75715e">// continue compilation
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is smaller&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is bigger&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">// Empty. I am useless. I strike!
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>If it weren&rsquo;t for <code>fn main</code> starting a strike and stopping compilation, this would have worked! Quite bold of <code>fn main</code> to just start a strike, even though there&rsquo;s no <code>union</code> in the entire program. But we really need it, it&rsquo;s not a disposable worker.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>And then, last and least I want to highlight one of my favourite consequences of this: <code>struct else</code></p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(Test) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;didn&#39;t match pattern&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p><!-- raw HTML omitted -->you&rsquo;re asking yourself what you just read. meanwhile, i am asking myself what i just wrote. we are very similar.<!-- raw HTML omitted --></p></content></item><item><title>Box Is a Unique Type</title><link>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</guid><description>We have all used Box&lt;T&gt; before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more than that!
|
||||||
struct Fields { a: String, b: String, } let fields = Box::new(Fields { a: &#34;a&#34;.to_string(), b: &#34;b&#34;.to_string() }); let a = fields.a; let b = fields.b; This kind of partial deref move is just one of the spectacular magic tricks box has up its sleeve, and they exist for good reason: They are very useful.</description><content><p>We have all used <code>Box&lt;T&gt;</code> before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics
|
struct Fields { a: String, b: String, } let fields = Box::new(Fields { a: &#34;a&#34;.to_string(), b: &#34;b&#34;.to_string() }); let a = fields.a; let b = fields.b; This kind of partial deref move is just one of the spectacular magic tricks box has up its sleeve, and they exist for good reason: They are very useful.</description><content><p>We have all used <code>Box&lt;T&gt;</code> before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics
|
||||||
and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more
|
and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more
|
||||||
than that!</p>
|
than that!</p>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
131
posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/index.html
Normal file
131
posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/index.html
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
|
||||||
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>Item Patterns And Struct Else :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content="Bringing more expressiveness to our items"><meta name=keywords content="design"><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content="Item Patterns And Struct Else"><meta property="og:description" content="Bringing more expressiveness to our items"><meta property="og:url" content="/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><meta property="article:published_time" content="2023-03-17 00:00:00 +0000 UTC"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=post><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>Item Patterns And Struct Else</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2023-03-17</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=post-reading-time>:: 7 min read (1351 words)</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
|
#<a href=/tags/language-design/>language-design</a> </span><div class=post-content><div><h1 id=pattern-matching>Pattern matching<a href=#pattern-matching class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>⌗</a></h1><p>One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It’s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>enum</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>ItemKind</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> Struct(String, Vec<span style=color:#f92672><</span>Field<span style=color:#f92672>></span>),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> Function(String, Body),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>impl</span> ItemKind {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>fn</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>name</span>(<span style=color:#f92672>&</span>self) -> <span style=color:#66d9ef>&</span><span style=color:#66d9ef>str</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>match</span> self {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> Self::Struct(name, _) <span style=color:#f92672>=></span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> Self::Function(name, _) <span style=color:#f92672>=></span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this. In C, this would be very unsafe, as we cannot be guaranteed that our union has the right tag.
|
||||||
|
But in Rust, the compiler nicely checks it all for us. It’s safe and expressive (just like many other features of Rust).</p><p>But that isn’t the only way to use pattern matching. While branching is one of its core features (in that sense, pattern matching is just like git),
|
||||||
|
it doesn’t always have to be used. Another major advantage of pattern matching lies in the ability to <em>exhaustively</em> (not be be confused with exhausting, like writing down brilliant ideas like this) match over inputs.</p><p>Let’s look at the following example. Here, we have a struct representing a struct in a programming language. It has a name and fields.
|
||||||
|
We then manually implement a custom hash trait for it because we are important and need a custom hash trait. We could have written a derive macro, but didn’t because
|
||||||
|
we don’t understand how proc macros work.</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>Struct</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> fields: Vec<span style=color:#f92672><</span>Field<span style=color:#f92672>></span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style=color:#66d9ef>for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>fn</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>hash</span>(<span style=color:#f92672>&</span>self, hasher: <span style=color:#66d9ef>&</span><span style=color:#a6e22e>mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> hasher.hash(<span style=color:#f92672>&</span>self.name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> hasher.hash(<span style=color:#f92672>&</span>self.fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This works perfectly. But then later, <a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/pull/1642>we add privacy to the language</a>. Now, all types have a visibility.</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-diff data-lang=diff><span style=display:flex><span>struct Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#a6e22e>+ visibility: Vis,
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#a6e22e></span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> fields: Vec<Field>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Pretty cool. Now no one can access the implementation details and make everything a mess. But wait - we have just made a mess! We didn’t hash the visibility!
|
||||||
|
Hashing something incorrectly <a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/84970>doesn’t sound too bad</a>, but it would be nice if this was prevented.</p><p>Thanks to exhaustive pattern matching, it would have been easy to prevent. We just change our hash implementation:</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style=color:#66d9ef>for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>fn</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>hash</span>(<span style=color:#f92672>&</span>self, hasher: <span style=color:#66d9ef>&</span><span style=color:#a6e22e>mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>let</span> Self { name, fields } <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> self;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> hasher.hash(name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> hasher.hash(fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>And with this, adding the visibility will cause a compiler error and alert us that we need to handle it in hashing.
|
||||||
|
(The decision whether we actually do want to handle it is still up to us. We could also just turn off the computer and make new friends outside.)</p><p>We can conclude that pattern matching is a great feature.</p><h1 id=limitations-of-pattern-matching>Limitations of pattern matching<a href=#limitations-of-pattern-matching class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>⌗</a></h1><p>But there is one big limitation of pattern matching - all of its occurrences (<code>match</code>, <code>if let</code>, <code>if let</code> chains, <code>while let</code>, <code>while let</code> chains, <code>for</code>, <code>let</code>, <code>let else</code>, and function parameters
|
||||||
|
(we do have a lot of pattern matching)) are inside of bodies, mostly as part of expressions or statements.</p><p>This doesn’t sound too bad. This is where the executed code resides. But it comes at a cost of consistency. We often add many syntactical niceties to expressions and statements, but forget about items.</p><h1 id=items-and-sadness>Items and sadness<a href=#items-and-sadness class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>⌗</a></h1><p>Items have a hard life. They are the parents of everything important. <code>struct</code>, <code>enum</code>, <code>const</code>, <code>mod</code>, <code>fn</code>, <code>union</code>, <code>global_asm</code> are all things we use daily, yet their grammar is very limited. (“free the items” was an alternative blog post title, although “freeing” generally remains a concern of <a href=https://nilstrieb.github.io/nilstrieb-c-style-guide-edition-2/>my C style guide</a>).</p><p>For example, see the following code where we declare a few constants.</p><pre tabindex=0><code>const ONE: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const TWO: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const THREE: u8 = 3;
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>There is nothing obviously wrong with this code. You understand it, I understand it, an ALGOL 68 developer from 1970 would probably understand it
|
||||||
|
and even an ancient greek philosopher might have a clue (which is impressive, given that they are all not alive anymore). But this is the kind of code that pages you at 4 AM.</p><p>You’ve read the last paragraph in confusion. Of course there’s something wrong with this code! <code>TWO</code> is <code>1</code>, yet the name strongly suggests that it should be <code>2</code>. And you’d
|
||||||
|
be right, this was just a check to make sure you’re still here. You are very clever and deserve this post. If you didn’t notice it, go to sleep. It’s good for your health.</p><p>But even if it was <code>2</code>, this code is still not good. There is way too much duplication! <code>const</code> is mentioned three times. This is a major distraction to the reader.</p><p>Let’s have a harder example:</p><pre tabindex=0><code>const ONE: u8 = 0; const
|
||||||
|
NAME: &
|
||||||
|
str = "nils";
|
||||||
|
const X: &str
|
||||||
|
= "const";const A: () = ();
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>Here, the <code>const</code> being noise is a lot more obvious. Did you see that <code>X</code> contains <code>"const"</code>? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. When I tested it, 0/0 people could see it.</p><p>Now imagine if it looked like this:</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>const</span> (<span style=color:#66d9ef>ONE</span>, <span style=color:#66d9ef>NAME</span>, X, A): (<span style=color:#66d9ef>u8</span>, <span style=color:#f92672>&</span><span style=color:#66d9ef>str</span>, <span style=color:#f92672>&</span><span style=color:#66d9ef>str</span>, ()) <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> (<span style=color:#ae81ff>0</span>, <span style=color:#e6db74>"nils"</span>, <span style=color:#e6db74>"const"</span>, ());
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Everything is way shorter and more readable.</p><p>What you’ve just seen is a limited form of pattern matching!</p><h1 id=lets-go-further>Let’s go further<a href=#lets-go-further class=hanchor arialabel=Anchor>⌗</a></h1><p>The idea of generalizing pattern matching is very powerful. We can apply this to more than just consts.</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> (Person, Car) <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> ({ name: String }, { wheels: <span style=color:#66d9ef>u8</span> });
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we create two structs with just a single <code>struct</code> keyword. This makes it way simpler and easier to read when related structs are declared.
|
||||||
|
So far we’ve just used tuples. But we can go even further. Structs of structs!</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>Household</span><span style=color:#f92672><</span>T, U<span style=color:#f92672>></span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> parent: <span style=color:#a6e22e>T</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> child: <span style=color:#a6e22e>U</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>Household</span> { parent: <span style=color:#a6e22e>Ferris</span>, child: <span style=color:#a6e22e>Corro</span> } <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> Household {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> parent: { name: String },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> child: { name: String, unsafety: <span style=color:#66d9ef>bool</span> },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Now we can nicely match on the <code>Household</code> struct containing the definition of the <code>Ferris</code> and <code>Corro</code> structs. This is equivalent to the following code:</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>Feris</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>Corro</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> unsafety: <span style=color:#66d9ef>bool</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This is already really neat, but there’s more. We also have to consider the falliblity of patterns.</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>static</span> Some(A) <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> None;
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This pattern doesn’t match. Inside bodies, we could use an <code>if let</code>:</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>if</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>let</span> Some(a) <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> None {} <span style=color:#66d9ef>else</span> {}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>We can also apply this to items.</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>if</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> Some(A) <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> None {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#75715e>/* other items where A exists */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>} <span style=color:#66d9ef>else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#75715e>/* other items where A doesn't exist */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This doesn’t sound too useful, but it allows for extreme flexibility!</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span>macro_rules<span style=color:#f92672>!</span> are_same_type {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> (<span style=color:#75715e>$a</span>:<span style=color:#a6e22e>ty</span>, <span style=color:#75715e>$b</span>:<span style=color:#a6e22e>ty</span>) <span style=color:#f92672>=></span> {{
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>static</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>mut</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>ARE_SAME</span>: <span style=color:#66d9ef>bool</span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>false</span>;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>if</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#75715e>$a</span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> <span style=color:#75715e>$b</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>const</span> _: () <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>unsafe</span> { <span style=color:#66d9ef>ARE_SAME</span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>true</span>; };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>unsafe</span> { <span style=color:#66d9ef>ARE_SAME</span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }};
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>fn</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>if</span> are_same_type!(Vec<span style=color:#f92672><</span>String<span style=color:#f92672>></span>, String) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> println!(<span style=color:#e6db74>"impossible to reach!"</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Ignoring this suspicious assignment to a <code>static mut</code>, this is lovely!</p><p>We can go further.</p><p>Today, items are just there with no ordering. What if we imposed an ordering? (and just like this, the C11 atomic model was born.) What if “Rust items” was a meta scripting language?</p><p>We can write a simple guessing game!</p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>fn</span> input() -> <span style=color:#66d9ef>u8</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>const</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span>: <span style=color:#66d9ef>&</span><span style=color:#66d9ef>str</span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> prompt!();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>const</span> Ok(<span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span>): Result<span style=color:#f92672><</span><span style=color:#66d9ef>u8</span>, ParseIntErr<span style=color:#f92672>></span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span>.parse() <span style=color:#66d9ef>else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> compile_error!(<span style=color:#e6db74>"Invalid input"</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>const</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>RANDOM</span>: <span style=color:#66d9ef>u8</span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> env!(<span style=color:#e6db74>"RANDOM"</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>loop</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>const</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span> <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> input();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>if</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span> <span style=color:#f92672>==</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>break</span>; <span style=color:#75715e>// continue compilation
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#75715e></span> } <span style=color:#66d9ef>else</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>if</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>INPUT</span> <span style=color:#f92672><</span> <span style=color:#66d9ef>RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> compile_warn!(<span style=color:#e6db74>"input is smaller"</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> } <span style=color:#66d9ef>else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> compile_warn!(<span style=color:#e6db74>"input is bigger"</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>fn</span> <span style=color:#a6e22e>main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> <span style=color:#75715e>// Empty. I am useless. I strike!
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#75715e></span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>If it weren’t for <code>fn main</code> starting a strike and stopping compilation, this would have worked! Quite bold of <code>fn main</code> to just start a strike, even though there’s no <code>union</code> in the entire program. But we really need it, it’s not a disposable worker.</p><p>And then, last and least I want to highlight one of my favourite consequences of this: <code>struct else</code></p><div class=highlight><pre tabindex=0 style=color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4><code class=language-rust data-lang=rust><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#66d9ef>struct</span> Some(Test) <span style=color:#f92672>=</span> None <span style=color:#66d9ef>else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> compile_error!(<span style=color:#e6db74>"didn't match pattern"</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>you’re asking yourself what you just read. meanwhile, i am asking myself what i just wrote. we are very similar.</p></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__title><span class=pagination__title-h></span><hr></div><div class=pagination__buttons><span class="button next"><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/><span class=button__text>Box Is a Unique Type</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=button__icon>→</span></a></span></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
|
<script src=/assets/prism.js></script></div></body></html>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1 +1 @@
|
||||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url><loc>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/posts/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/rust/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/unsafe-code/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/categories/</loc></url></urlset>
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><url><loc>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</loc><lastmod>2023-03-17T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/language-design/</loc><lastmod>2023-03-17T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/</loc><lastmod>2023-03-17T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/posts/</loc><lastmod>2023-03-17T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/rust/</loc><lastmod>2023-03-17T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/</loc><lastmod>2023-03-17T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/tags/unsafe-code/</loc><lastmod>2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod></url><url><loc>/categories/</loc></url></urlset>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
|
||||||
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>Tags :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/tags/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="Tags"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/tags/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/tags/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=terms><h1>Tags</h1><ul><li><a class=terms-title href=/tags/rust/>rust (1)</a></li><li><a class=terms-title href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code (1)</a></li></ul></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>Tags :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/tags/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="Tags"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/tags/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/tags/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=terms><h1>Tags</h1><ul><li><a class=terms-title href=/tags/language-design/>language-design (1)</a></li><li><a class=terms-title href=/tags/rust/>rust (2)</a></li><li><a class=terms-title href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code (1)</a></li></ul></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
<script src=/assets/prism.js></script></div></body></html>
|
<script src=/assets/prism.js></script></div></body></html>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1 +1 @@
|
||||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Tags on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/tags/</link><description>Recent content in Tags on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/tags/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>rust</title><link>/tags/rust/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/tags/rust/</guid><description/><content/></item><item><title>unsafe code</title><link>/tags/unsafe-code/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/tags/unsafe-code/</guid><description/><content/></item></channel></rss>
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Tags on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/tags/</link><description>Recent content in Tags on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/tags/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>language-design</title><link>/tags/language-design/</link><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/tags/language-design/</guid><description/><content/></item><item><title>rust</title><link>/tags/rust/</link><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/tags/rust/</guid><description/><content/></item><item><title>unsafe code</title><link>/tags/unsafe-code/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/tags/unsafe-code/</guid><description/><content/></item></channel></rss>
|
||||||
5
tags/language-design/index.html
Normal file
5
tags/language-design/index.html
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
|
||||||
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>language-design :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/tags/language-design/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="language-design"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/tags/language-design/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/tags/language-design/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>Item Patterns And Struct Else</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2023-03-17</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
|
#<a href=/tags/language-design/>language-design</a> </span><div class=post-content>Bringing more expressiveness to our items</div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
|
<script src=/assets/prism.js></script></div></body></html>
|
||||||
164
tags/language-design/index.xml
Normal file
164
tags/language-design/index.xml
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
|
||||||
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>language-design on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/tags/language-design/</link><description>Recent content in language-design on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/tags/language-design/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Item Patterns And Struct Else</title><link>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</link><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</guid><description>Pattern matching One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!
|
||||||
|
enum ItemKind { Struct(String, Vec&lt;Field&gt;), Function(String, Body), } impl ItemKind { fn name(&amp;self) -&gt; &amp;str { match self { Self::Struct(name, _) =&gt; name, Self::Function(name, _) =&gt; name, } } } Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this.</description><content><h1 id="pattern-matching">Pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">enum</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">ItemKind</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Struct(String, Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Function(String, Body),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> ItemKind {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">name</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self) -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">match</span> self {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Struct(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Function(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this. In C, this would be very unsafe, as we cannot be guaranteed that our union has the right tag.
|
||||||
|
But in Rust, the compiler nicely checks it all for us. It&rsquo;s safe and expressive (just like many other features of Rust).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But that isn&rsquo;t the only way to use pattern matching. While branching is one of its core features (in that sense, pattern matching is just like git),
|
||||||
|
it doesn&rsquo;t always have to be used. Another major advantage of pattern matching lies in the ability to <em>exhaustively</em> (not be be confused with exhausting, like writing down brilliant ideas like this) match over inputs.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s look at the following example. Here, we have a struct representing a struct in a programming language. It has a name and fields.
|
||||||
|
We then manually implement a custom hash trait for it because we are important and need a custom hash trait. We could have written a derive macro, but didn&rsquo;t because
|
||||||
|
we don&rsquo;t understand how proc macros work.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Struct</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This works perfectly. But then later, <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/pull/1642">we add privacy to the language</a>. Now, all types have a visibility.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-diff" data-lang="diff"><span style="display:flex;"><span>struct Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e">+ visibility: Vis,
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e"></span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec&lt;Field&gt;,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Pretty cool. Now no one can access the implementation details and make everything a mess. But wait - we have just made a mess! We didn&rsquo;t hash the visibility!
|
||||||
|
Hashing something incorrectly <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/84970">doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad</a>, but it would be nice if this was prevented.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Thanks to exhaustive pattern matching, it would have been easy to prevent. We just change our hash implementation:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Self { name, fields } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> self;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>And with this, adding the visibility will cause a compiler error and alert us that we need to handle it in hashing.
|
||||||
|
(The decision whether we actually do want to handle it is still up to us. We could also just turn off the computer and make new friends outside.)</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can conclude that pattern matching is a great feature.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="limitations-of-pattern-matching">Limitations of pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>But there is one big limitation of pattern matching - all of its occurrences (<code>match</code>, <code>if let</code>, <code>if let</code> chains, <code>while let</code>, <code>while let</code> chains, <code>for</code>, <code>let</code>, <code>let else</code>, and function parameters
|
||||||
|
(we do have a lot of pattern matching)) are inside of bodies, mostly as part of expressions or statements.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad. This is where the executed code resides. But it comes at a cost of consistency. We often add many syntactical niceties to expressions and statements, but forget about items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="items-and-sadness">Items and sadness</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>Items have a hard life. They are the parents of everything important. <code>struct</code>, <code>enum</code>, <code>const</code>, <code>mod</code>, <code>fn</code>, <code>union</code>, <code>global_asm</code> are all things we use daily, yet their grammar is very limited. (&ldquo;free the items&rdquo; was an alternative blog post title, although &ldquo;freeing&rdquo; generally remains a concern of <a href="https://nilstrieb.github.io/nilstrieb-c-style-guide-edition-2/">my C style guide</a>).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>For example, see the following code where we declare a few constants.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const TWO: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const THREE: u8 = 3;
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>There is nothing obviously wrong with this code. You understand it, I understand it, an ALGOL 68 developer from 1970 would probably understand it
|
||||||
|
and even an ancient greek philosopher might have a clue (which is impressive, given that they are all not alive anymore). But this is the kind of code that pages you at 4 AM.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>You&rsquo;ve read the last paragraph in confusion. Of course there&rsquo;s something wrong with this code! <code>TWO</code> is <code>1</code>, yet the name strongly suggests that it should be <code>2</code>. And you&rsquo;d
|
||||||
|
be right, this was just a check to make sure you&rsquo;re still here. You are very clever and deserve this post. If you didn&rsquo;t notice it, go to sleep. It&rsquo;s good for your health.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But even if it was <code>2</code>, this code is still not good. There is way too much duplication! <code>const</code> is mentioned three times. This is a major distraction to the reader.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s have a harder example:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 0; const
|
||||||
|
NAME: &amp;
|
||||||
|
str = &#34;nils&#34;;
|
||||||
|
const X: &amp;str
|
||||||
|
= &#34;const&#34;;const A: () = ();
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>Here, the <code>const</code> being noise is a lot more obvious. Did you see that <code>X</code> contains <code>&quot;const&quot;</code>? Maybe you did, maybe you didn&rsquo;t. When I tested it, 0/0 people could see it.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Now imagine if it looked like this:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> (<span style="color:#66d9ef">ONE</span>, <span style="color:#66d9ef">NAME</span>, X, A): (<span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, ()) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> (<span style="color:#ae81ff">0</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;nils&#34;</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;const&#34;</span>, ());
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Everything is way shorter and more readable.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>What you&rsquo;ve just seen is a limited form of pattern matching!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="lets-go-further">Let&rsquo;s go further</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>The idea of generalizing pattern matching is very powerful. We can apply this to more than just consts.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> (Person, Car) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> ({ name: String }, { wheels: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> });
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we create two structs with just a single <code>struct</code> keyword. This makes it way simpler and easier to read when related structs are declared.
|
||||||
|
So far we&rsquo;ve just used tuples. But we can go even further. Structs of structs!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span><span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>T, U<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">T</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">U</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span> { parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Ferris</span>, child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> Household {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: { name: String },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: { name: String, unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Now we can nicely match on the <code>Household</code> struct containing the definition of the <code>Ferris</code> and <code>Corro</code> structs. This is equivalent to the following code:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Feris</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This is already really neat, but there&rsquo;s more. We also have to consider the falliblity of patterns.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None;
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This pattern doesn&rsquo;t match. Inside bodies, we could use an <code>if let</code>:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Some(a) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>We can also apply this to items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A exists */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A doesn&#39;t exist */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too useful, but it allows for extreme flexibility!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span>macro_rules<span style="color:#f92672">!</span> are_same_type {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> (<span style="color:#75715e">$a</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>, <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> {{
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">mut</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">false</span>;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$a</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> _: () <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">true</span>; };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }};
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> are_same_type!(Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>String<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>, String) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> println!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;impossible to reach!&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Ignoring this suspicious assignment to a <code>static mut</code>, this is lovely!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can go further.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Today, items are just there with no ordering. What if we imposed an ordering? (and just like this, the C11 atomic model was born.) What if &ldquo;Rust items&rdquo; was a meta scripting language?</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can write a simple guessing game!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">fn</span> input() -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> prompt!();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> Ok(<span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>): Result<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, ParseIntErr<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>.parse() <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;Invalid input&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> env!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;RANDOM&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">loop</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> input();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">==</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">break</span>; <span style="color:#75715e">// continue compilation
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is smaller&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is bigger&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">// Empty. I am useless. I strike!
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>If it weren&rsquo;t for <code>fn main</code> starting a strike and stopping compilation, this would have worked! Quite bold of <code>fn main</code> to just start a strike, even though there&rsquo;s no <code>union</code> in the entire program. But we really need it, it&rsquo;s not a disposable worker.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>And then, last and least I want to highlight one of my favourite consequences of this: <code>struct else</code></p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(Test) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;didn&#39;t match pattern&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p><!-- raw HTML omitted -->you&rsquo;re asking yourself what you just read. meanwhile, i am asking myself what i just wrote. we are very similar.<!-- raw HTML omitted --></p></content></item></channel></rss>
|
||||||
1
tags/language-design/page/1/index.html
Normal file
1
tags/language-design/page/1/index.html
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1 @@
|
||||||
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en-us><head><title>/tags/language-design/</title><link rel=canonical href=/tags/language-design/><meta name=robots content="noindex"><meta charset=utf-8><meta http-equiv=refresh content="0; url=/tags/language-design/"></head></html>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
|
||||||
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>rust :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/tags/rust/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="rust"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/tags/rust/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/tags/rust/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>Box Is a Unique Type</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2022-07-23</span>
|
<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><title>rust :: nilstriebs blog</title><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=description content><meta name=keywords content><meta name=robots content="noodp"><link rel=canonical href=/tags/rust/><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/style.css><link rel=apple-touch-icon href=/img/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png><link rel="shortcut icon" href=/img/favicon/orange.png><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:locale" content="en"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="rust"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:url" content="/tags/rust/"><meta property="og:site_name" content="nilstriebs blog"><meta property="og:image" content="/img/favicon/orange.png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="2048"><meta property="og:image:height" content="1024"><link href=/tags/rust/index.xml rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="nilstriebs blog"></head><body class=orange><div class="container center headings--one-size"><header class=header><div class=header__inner><div class=header__logo><a href=/><div class=logo>nilstriebs blog</div></a></div></div></header><div class=content><div class=posts><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>Item Patterns And Struct Else</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2023-03-17</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
|
#<a href=/tags/language-design/>language-design</a> </span><div class=post-content>Bringing more expressiveness to our items</div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/>→</a></div></div><div class="post on-list"><h1 class=post-title><a href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>Box Is a Unique Type</a></h1><div class=post-meta><span class=post-date>2022-07-23</span>
|
||||||
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
<span class=post-author>:: Nilstrieb</span></div><span class=post-tags>#<a href=/tags/rust/>rust</a>
|
||||||
#<a href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code</a> </span><div class=post-content>About better aliasing semantics for <code>Box<T></code></div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
#<a href=/tags/unsafe-code/>unsafe code</a> </span><div class=post-content>About better aliasing semantics for <code>Box<T></code></div><div><a class="read-more button" href=/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/>→</a></div></div><div class=pagination><div class=pagination__buttons></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class=footer__inner><div class=copyright><span>© 2023 Powered by <a href=http://gohugo.io>Hugo</a></span>
|
||||||
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
<span>:: Theme made by <a href=https://twitter.com/panr>panr</a></span></div></div></footer><script src=/assets/main.js></script>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,167 @@
|
||||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>rust on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/tags/rust/</link><description>Recent content in rust on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/tags/rust/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Box Is a Unique Type</title><link>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</guid><description>We have all used Box&lt;T&gt; before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more than that!
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>rust on nilstriebs blog</title><link>/tags/rust/</link><description>Recent content in rust on nilstriebs blog</description><generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/tags/rust/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Item Patterns And Struct Else</title><link>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</link><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/item-patterns-and-struct-else/</guid><description>Pattern matching One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!
|
||||||
|
enum ItemKind { Struct(String, Vec&lt;Field&gt;), Function(String, Body), } impl ItemKind { fn name(&amp;self) -&gt; &amp;str { match self { Self::Struct(name, _) =&gt; name, Self::Function(name, _) =&gt; name, } } } Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this.</description><content><h1 id="pattern-matching">Pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>One of my favourite features of Rust is pattern matching. It&rsquo;s a simple and elegant way to deal with not just structs, but also enums!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">enum</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">ItemKind</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Struct(String, Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Function(String, Body),
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> ItemKind {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">name</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self) -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">match</span> self {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Struct(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> Self::Function(name, _) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> name,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we have an enum and a function to get the name out of this. In C, this would be very unsafe, as we cannot be guaranteed that our union has the right tag.
|
||||||
|
But in Rust, the compiler nicely checks it all for us. It&rsquo;s safe and expressive (just like many other features of Rust).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But that isn&rsquo;t the only way to use pattern matching. While branching is one of its core features (in that sense, pattern matching is just like git),
|
||||||
|
it doesn&rsquo;t always have to be used. Another major advantage of pattern matching lies in the ability to <em>exhaustively</em> (not be be confused with exhausting, like writing down brilliant ideas like this) match over inputs.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s look at the following example. Here, we have a struct representing a struct in a programming language. It has a name and fields.
|
||||||
|
We then manually implement a custom hash trait for it because we are important and need a custom hash trait. We could have written a derive macro, but didn&rsquo;t because
|
||||||
|
we don&rsquo;t understand how proc macros work.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Struct</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>Field<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self.fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This works perfectly. But then later, <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/pull/1642">we add privacy to the language</a>. Now, all types have a visibility.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-diff" data-lang="diff"><span style="display:flex;"><span>struct Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e">+ visibility: Vis,
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#a6e22e"></span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> fields: Vec&lt;Field&gt;,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Pretty cool. Now no one can access the implementation details and make everything a mess. But wait - we have just made a mess! We didn&rsquo;t hash the visibility!
|
||||||
|
Hashing something incorrectly <a href="https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/84970">doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad</a>, but it would be nice if this was prevented.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Thanks to exhaustive pattern matching, it would have been easy to prevent. We just change our hash implementation:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">impl</span> HandRolledHash <span style="color:#66d9ef">for</span> Struct {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">hash</span>(<span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span>self, hasher: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#a6e22e">mut</span> HandRolledHasher) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Self { name, fields } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> self;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(name);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> hasher.hash(fields);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>And with this, adding the visibility will cause a compiler error and alert us that we need to handle it in hashing.
|
||||||
|
(The decision whether we actually do want to handle it is still up to us. We could also just turn off the computer and make new friends outside.)</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can conclude that pattern matching is a great feature.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="limitations-of-pattern-matching">Limitations of pattern matching</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>But there is one big limitation of pattern matching - all of its occurrences (<code>match</code>, <code>if let</code>, <code>if let</code> chains, <code>while let</code>, <code>while let</code> chains, <code>for</code>, <code>let</code>, <code>let else</code>, and function parameters
|
||||||
|
(we do have a lot of pattern matching)) are inside of bodies, mostly as part of expressions or statements.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too bad. This is where the executed code resides. But it comes at a cost of consistency. We often add many syntactical niceties to expressions and statements, but forget about items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="items-and-sadness">Items and sadness</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>Items have a hard life. They are the parents of everything important. <code>struct</code>, <code>enum</code>, <code>const</code>, <code>mod</code>, <code>fn</code>, <code>union</code>, <code>global_asm</code> are all things we use daily, yet their grammar is very limited. (&ldquo;free the items&rdquo; was an alternative blog post title, although &ldquo;freeing&rdquo; generally remains a concern of <a href="https://nilstrieb.github.io/nilstrieb-c-style-guide-edition-2/">my C style guide</a>).</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>For example, see the following code where we declare a few constants.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const TWO: u8 = 1;
|
||||||
|
const THREE: u8 = 3;
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>There is nothing obviously wrong with this code. You understand it, I understand it, an ALGOL 68 developer from 1970 would probably understand it
|
||||||
|
and even an ancient greek philosopher might have a clue (which is impressive, given that they are all not alive anymore). But this is the kind of code that pages you at 4 AM.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>You&rsquo;ve read the last paragraph in confusion. Of course there&rsquo;s something wrong with this code! <code>TWO</code> is <code>1</code>, yet the name strongly suggests that it should be <code>2</code>. And you&rsquo;d
|
||||||
|
be right, this was just a check to make sure you&rsquo;re still here. You are very clever and deserve this post. If you didn&rsquo;t notice it, go to sleep. It&rsquo;s good for your health.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But even if it was <code>2</code>, this code is still not good. There is way too much duplication! <code>const</code> is mentioned three times. This is a major distraction to the reader.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Let&rsquo;s have a harder example:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre tabindex="0"><code>const ONE: u8 = 0; const
|
||||||
|
NAME: &amp;
|
||||||
|
str = &#34;nils&#34;;
|
||||||
|
const X: &amp;str
|
||||||
|
= &#34;const&#34;;const A: () = ();
|
||||||
|
</code></pre><p>Here, the <code>const</code> being noise is a lot more obvious. Did you see that <code>X</code> contains <code>&quot;const&quot;</code>? Maybe you did, maybe you didn&rsquo;t. When I tested it, 0/0 people could see it.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Now imagine if it looked like this:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> (<span style="color:#66d9ef">ONE</span>, <span style="color:#66d9ef">NAME</span>, X, A): (<span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, <span style="color:#f92672">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span>, ()) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> (<span style="color:#ae81ff">0</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;nils&#34;</span>, <span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;const&#34;</span>, ());
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Everything is way shorter and more readable.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>What you&rsquo;ve just seen is a limited form of pattern matching!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="lets-go-further">Let&rsquo;s go further</h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>The idea of generalizing pattern matching is very powerful. We can apply this to more than just consts.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> (Person, Car) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> ({ name: String }, { wheels: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> });
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Here, we create two structs with just a single <code>struct</code> keyword. This makes it way simpler and easier to read when related structs are declared.
|
||||||
|
So far we&rsquo;ve just used tuples. But we can go even further. Structs of structs!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span><span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>T, U<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">T</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">U</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Household</span> { parent: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Ferris</span>, child: <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> } <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> Household {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> parent: { name: String },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> child: { name: String, unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> },
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Now we can nicely match on the <code>Household</code> struct containing the definition of the <code>Ferris</code> and <code>Corro</code> structs. This is equivalent to the following code:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Feris</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">Corro</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> name: String,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> unsafety: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span>,
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This is already really neat, but there&rsquo;s more. We also have to consider the falliblity of patterns.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None;
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This pattern doesn&rsquo;t match. Inside bodies, we could use an <code>if let</code>:</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">let</span> Some(a) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>We can also apply this to items.</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(A) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A exists */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>} <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">/* other items where A doesn&#39;t exist */</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>This doesn&rsquo;t sound too useful, but it allows for extreme flexibility!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span>macro_rules<span style="color:#f92672">!</span> are_same_type {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> (<span style="color:#75715e">$a</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>, <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span>:<span style="color:#a6e22e">ty</span>) <span style="color:#f92672">=&gt;</span> {{
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">static</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">mut</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">bool</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">false</span>;
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$a</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#75715e">$b</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> _: () <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">true</span>; };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">unsafe</span> { <span style="color:#66d9ef">ARE_SAME</span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }};
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> are_same_type!(Vec<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span>String<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span>, String) {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> println!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;impossible to reach!&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>Ignoring this suspicious assignment to a <code>static mut</code>, this is lovely!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can go further.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Today, items are just there with no ordering. What if we imposed an ordering? (and just like this, the C11 atomic model was born.) What if &ldquo;Rust items&rdquo; was a meta scripting language?</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>We can write a simple guessing game!</p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">fn</span> input() -&gt; <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">&amp;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">str</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> prompt!();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> Ok(<span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>): Result<span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span><span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span>, ParseIntErr<span style="color:#f92672">&gt;</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>.parse() <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;Invalid input&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> };
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span>: <span style="color:#66d9ef">u8</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> env!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;RANDOM&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">loop</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">const</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> input();
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">==</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">break</span>; <span style="color:#75715e">// continue compilation
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">if</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">INPUT</span> <span style="color:#f92672">&lt;</span> <span style="color:#66d9ef">RANDOM</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is smaller&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> } <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_warn!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;input is bigger&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> }
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">fn</span> <span style="color:#a6e22e">main</span>() {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> <span style="color:#75715e">// Empty. I am useless. I strike!
|
||||||
|
</span></span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#75715e"></span>}
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p>If it weren&rsquo;t for <code>fn main</code> starting a strike and stopping compilation, this would have worked! Quite bold of <code>fn main</code> to just start a strike, even though there&rsquo;s no <code>union</code> in the entire program. But we really need it, it&rsquo;s not a disposable worker.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>And then, last and least I want to highlight one of my favourite consequences of this: <code>struct else</code></p>
|
||||||
|
<div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;"><code class="language-rust" data-lang="rust"><span style="display:flex;"><span><span style="color:#66d9ef">struct</span> Some(Test) <span style="color:#f92672">=</span> None <span style="color:#66d9ef">else</span> {
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span> compile_error!(<span style="color:#e6db74">&#34;didn&#39;t match pattern&#34;</span>);
|
||||||
|
</span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>};
|
||||||
|
</span></span></code></pre></div><p><!-- raw HTML omitted -->you&rsquo;re asking yourself what you just read. meanwhile, i am asking myself what i just wrote. we are very similar.<!-- raw HTML omitted --></p></content></item><item><title>Box Is a Unique Type</title><link>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>/posts/box-is-a-unique-type/</guid><description>We have all used Box&lt;T&gt; before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more than that!
|
||||||
struct Fields { a: String, b: String, } let fields = Box::new(Fields { a: &#34;a&#34;.to_string(), b: &#34;b&#34;.to_string() }); let a = fields.a; let b = fields.b; This kind of partial deref move is just one of the spectacular magic tricks box has up its sleeve, and they exist for good reason: They are very useful.</description><content><p>We have all used <code>Box&lt;T&gt;</code> before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics
|
struct Fields { a: String, b: String, } let fields = Box::new(Fields { a: &#34;a&#34;.to_string(), b: &#34;b&#34;.to_string() }); let a = fields.a; let b = fields.b; This kind of partial deref move is just one of the spectacular magic tricks box has up its sleeve, and they exist for good reason: They are very useful.</description><content><p>We have all used <code>Box&lt;T&gt;</code> before in our Rust code. It&rsquo;s a glorious type, with great ergonomics
|
||||||
and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more
|
and flexibility. We can use it to put our values on the heap, but it can do even more
|
||||||
than that!</p>
|
than that!</p>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue