Module fj_kernel::partial

Expand description

API for dealing with partially defined objects

This module contains types that represent objects that only have some of their data and referenced objects defined. This is useful in the following situations:

Sometimes parts of an object can be inferred. For example, when building a half-edge that is a line segment, it is enough to provide only two partial vertices with only their surface coordinates defined. The rest can be inferred.
Sometimes you need to build an object, but parts of it already exist. For example, a new half-edge might share a vertex with an existing half-edge. In such a case you can use the partial object to provide the existing vertex, then provide or infer other parts as appropriate.
When transforming an object, parts of it might already be transformed. For example, when transforming a half-edge, each of its vertices references the same curve as the half-edge does. The partial object API can be used to avoid transforming the same object multiple times.

This module contains two groups of types:

Structs that represent partial objects. For example PartialHalfEdge is the partial variant of HalfEdge.
Infrastructure for abstracting over partial objects. See Partial, HasPartial, and MaybePartial.