crate_interface_lite

A lightweight version of crate_interface written with declarative macros.

Example

// Define the interface
crate_interface_lite::def_interface!(
    pub trait HelloIf {
        fn hello(name: &str, id: usize) -> String;
    }
);

// Implement the interface in any crate
struct HelloIfImpl;
crate_interface_lite::impl_interface!(
    impl HelloIf for HelloIfImpl {
        fn hello(name: &str, id: usize) -> String {
            format!("Hello, {} {}!", name, id)
        }
    }
);

// Call `HelloIfImpl::hello` in any crate
use crate_interface_lite::call_interface;
assert_eq!(
    call_interface!(HelloIf::hello("world", 123)),
    "Hello, world 123!"
);
assert_eq!(
    call_interface!(HelloIf::hello, "rust", 456), // another calling style
    "Hello, rust 456!"
);

Comparison with crate_interface

Similar: APIs

The public APIs are almost the same as crate_interface. One major difference is that you cannot use the exported macros as attributes.

// With crate_interface...
#[crate_interface::def_interface]
pub trait HelloIf {
    fn hello(name: &str, id: usize) -> String;
}
// With crate_interface_lite...
crate_interface_lite::def_interface!(
    pub trait HelloIf {
        fn hello(name: &str, id: usize) -> String;
    }
);

Different: No proc-macro related dependencies

This is the major reason to use this crate, as it would result in a tidier dependency tree of your project and slightly speed up the compilation. However, if you already have proc-macro related dependencies in your crate’s dependency graph, there is almost no benefit from using this crate.

Different: No support for method receivers

Unlike crate_interface::def_interface, the macro in this crate does not support method receivers, namely self, &self, &mut self, etc. But in most cases, you don't need them, since the impl_interface is often applied to an unit struct.

crate_interface_lite::def_interface!(
    pub trait HelloIf {
        fn hello(self, name: &str, id: usize) -> String;
        //       ^^^^ Not supported!
    }
);

Different: No support for default implementations

The def_interface in this crate does not support default implementations of trait functions. In the future, we may support using default implementations as fallbacks when no other implementations are provided.

crate_interface_lite::def_interface!(
    pub trait HelloIf {
        fn hello(name: &str, id: usize) -> String { todo!() }
        //                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^ Not supported!
    }
);