Crate tiny_fn

Have you ever being placing closure into Box<dyn Fn(...)> and wondered: “Is there a crate to avoid heap allocations for small closures?”

Wonder no more, this is the crate.

How to use

This crate provides declarative macro tiny_fn! to generate closure wrappers able store closure erasing its type.

Generated closure wrappers avoid heap allocations when wrapped closure fits inline storage.

The macro is designed to be easy to write with simple syntax that mostly reuse constructs already existing in Rust.
Behavior of generated wrappers should be obvious from the first glance.

Example

tiny_fn! {
    struct Foo = Fn(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32;
}

Macro expands to struct Foo definition with two public methods.

• Foo::new accepts any value that implements Fn(i32, i32) -> i32 and returns new instance of Foo.
• Foo::call follows signature specified to the macro. e.g. Foo::call accepts a: i32 and b: i32 and returns i32.
  Plainly Foo::call calls closure from which this instance of Foo was crated using a and b arguments at the same positions.

tiny_fn! macro supports defining multiple items at once.

tiny_fn! {
    struct Foo = Fn(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32;
    struct Bar = Fn() -> String;
}

Visibility

tiny_fn! macro supports visibility qualifiers.

tiny_fn! {
    pub struct Foo = Fn(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32;
    struct Bar = Fn() -> String;
    pub(crate) struct Baz = Fn();
}

Attributes

tiny_fn! macro supports item attributes, including documentation.

tiny_fn! {
    /// This is `Foo` wrapper for that takes two `i32`s and return `i32`.
    pub struct Foo = Fn(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32;
}

Fn* traits family

tiny_fn! macro can generate closure wrappers for any of the Fn* traits family.

tiny_fn! {
    struct A = Fn();
    struct B = FnMut();
    struct C = FnOnce();
}

• A can wrap only closures that are callable when immutably borrowed. And so A::call takes &self.
• B can wrap only closures that are callable when borrowed. And so B::call takes &mut self.
• C can wrap any closures, even ones that are callable once. And so C::call takes self.

Generics

Closure wrappers can be declared generic over number of types and those types should be used in function signature.

tiny_fn! {
    struct BinOp<T> = Fn(a: T, b: T) -> T;
}

Here BinOp is generic over T.
BiOp::<T>::new accepts closures bounds by Fn(T, T) -> T.

Notably T is not constrained by traits in BinOp.
Closure wrappers only move arguments and return values, so they don’t need to know anything else about the type.

Special generic parameters

Closure wrapper generated by tiny_fn! macro always have two generic parameters besides generic types specified by macro caller:

• Lifetime 'closure.
  Wrapper contains closures bound by 'closure lifetime.
• Constant INLINE_SIZE: usize.
  Closures with size up to INLINE_SIZE and alignment requirement not exceeding tiny_fn::ALIGN will be inlined into wrapper structure directly.
  Otherwise heap allocation will occur.
  INLINE_SIZE parameter is defaulted to tiny_fn::DEFAULT_INLINE_SIZE.

Modules

example

This module contains a few example declarations with tiny_fn! macro.
And their usage in the section below.

Macros

tiny_fn

Defines new structure type. This type will be constructible from any closure that implement specified Fn* trait. Closures that fits into inline storage will be placed there. Otherwise closure will be boxed. And it will have call method with the same signature as the closure.

Constants

ALIGN

Inline storage alignment. Closures with stricter alignment requirements will be heap allocated by wrapper even if size fits.

DEFAULT_INLINE_SIZE

Default value for INLINE_SIZE parameter of closure wrappers generated by tiny_fn! macro.