This crate provides Dst
, an owned container for dynamically-sized types (DSTs) that's backed by inline memory. The main use-case is owned trait objects without heap allocation. You can think of it as a stack-only version of Box<dyn Trait>
.
This crate currently requires nightly, since it relies on Unsize
and pointer metadata.
The layout of sized_dst::Dst
consists of the DST metadata (for trait objects, this is the vtable pointer) and a fixed block of memory storing the actual object. This allows it to live entirely on the stack or even a static variable. The size and alignment of its memory block are specified by generic parameters, so a sized_dst::Dst
can only store objects that fit in its memory block. If the object does not fulfill the size or alignment requirements, the constructor of sized_dst::Dst
will emit a compile-time error.
use sized_dst::{Dst, max_size};
trait Draw {
fn draw(&self);
}
struct Button {
height: u32,
width: u32,
name: &'static str,
}
impl Draw for Button {
fn draw(&self) { /* draw the button */ }
}
struct Checkbox {
on: bool,
}
impl Draw for Checkbox {
fn draw(&self) { /* draw the checkbox */ }
}
struct Text(&'static str);
impl Draw for Text {
fn draw(&self) { /* draw the text */ }
}
struct Blob([u8; 100]);
impl Draw for Blob {
fn draw(&self) { /* draw the blob */ }
}
impl Draw for u32 {
fn draw(&self) { /* draw the u32 */ }
}
fn main() {
// Each Dst stores a `dyn Draw` up to a fixed capacity, which is set via `max_size` to
// the size of the biggest trait object we're using.
let drawables: &[Dst<dyn Draw, { max_size!(Checkbox, Text, Button) }>] = &[
Dst::new(Checkbox { on: true }),
Dst::new(Text("lorem ipsum")),
Dst::new(Button {
height: 20,
width: 20,
name: "PANIC BUTTON",
}),
Dst::new(1u32), // u32 is smaller than the fixed capacity we specified, so we can use it
// Dst::new(Blob([0; 100])) This would not compile, because Blob doesn't fit in Dst
];
// Perform dynamic dispatch over the Draw trait
for d in drawables {
d.draw();
}
}
Compared to Box<dyn Trait>
, Dst
requires no indirection or allocation, making it more cache-friendly and usable in environments with no allocator. In exchange, Dst
can only store objects up to a fixed size, making it less flexible than Box<dyn Trait>
. In a way, Dst
offers a compromise between enums and boxed trait objects.
std
: Enable implementations ofstd
traits.