Finally, we can make our own types (or data structures)!!


This is supplementary/separate from the Twitch Streams (see sidebar for links), intended for discussion here on lemmy.

The idea being, now that both twitch streams have read Chapters 5 and 6, we can have a discussion here and those from the twitch streams can have a retrospective or re-cap on the topic.

This will be a regular occurrence for each discrete set of topics coming out of The Book as the twitch streams cover them


With Ch 4 on the borrow checker out of the way, chapters 5 & 6 feel like the “inflection point” … the point where we’re ready to actually start programming in rust.

Custom types, data structures, objects with methods, pattern matching, and even dipping into rust’s traits system and it’s quasi answer to class inheritance.

If you’re comfortable enough with the borrow checker, you can really start to program with rust now!


I personally didn’t think this content was difficult, though it prompts some interesting points and topics (which I’ll mention in my own comment below).

  • Any thoughts, difficulties or confusions?
  • Any quizzes stump you?
  • Any major tips or rules of thumb you’ve taken away or generally have about using structs and enums?
  • Jayjader@jlai.luM
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    5 days ago

    I’m sure there are a bunch of patterns that emerge out of this (anyone with some wisdom here?) …

    The classical one is something that looks like the following:

    struct LoggedOut;
    struct User {name: String};
    struct Admin {name: String};
    
    impl LoggedOut {
      fn login(self, name: String, password: String) -> User {
        User { name }
      }
      fn admin_login(self, name: String) -> Admin {
        Admin { name }
      }
    }
    
    impl User {
      fn log_out(self) -> LoggedOut {
        LoggedOut {}
      }
    }
    
    impl Admin {
      fn log_out(self) -> LoggedOut {
        LoggedOut {}
      }
    }
    
    fn fetch_user_preferences(user: User) { /*...*/ }
    
    fn do_admin_action(admin_account: Admin) { /* ... */ }
    
    fn main() {
      let mut user_session = LoggedOut {};
      /* (get user input) */
      match input {
        "login" => {
            user_session = user_session.login(name, password);
        }
        "admin" => {
           user_session = user_session.admin_login(name);
        }
      }
    }
    

    This would prevent you from writing code that uses the user’s info / session “object” after they have logged out (and/or before they have logged in). On its own it’s naive and a bit encumbering - I expect an enum would make more sense but then you can’t restrict via types which user session values can and can’t be passed to specific functions. In any case, when you are building a whole system around it it can be very useful to have the compiler enforcing these sorts of things “in the background”.

    This is basically what Gary Bernhardt is talking about in the talk you linked.

    • maegulOPM
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      2 days ago

      Yep. And then you realise that “move semantics” aren’t just a safety net that you have to “fight with” but actually a language feature against which you can develop/deploy desirable patterns.

      A minor thing I noted reading your code snippets was that I immediately noticed, like at a gestalt level, the lack of ampersands (&) and therefore references and could immediately tell that this was a “faux-O”/pipline style system. Not too bad for a syntax often derided as messy/bad.