Is there any way to export `FutureExt::then` to FFI?

[alissa-tung]

To export a generic Writer to FFI, we can do something like:

#![feature(box_syntax)]

use std::io::{self, Write};

struct BaseWriter {
    write: fn(*mut BaseWriter, &[u8]) -> Result<(), io::Error>,
}

struct ImplWriter<A> {
    base: BaseWriter,
    x: A,
}

impl<A> ImplWriter<A>
where
    A: Write,
{
    fn vtable(xs: &mut A) -> BaseWriter {
        BaseWriter { write: write::<A> }
    }
}

fn write<A>(xs: *mut BaseWriter, x: &[u8]) -> Result<(), io::Error>
where
    A: Write,
{
    unsafe {
        let xs = xs as *mut ImplWriter<A>;
        (*xs).x.write_all(x)
    }
}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use std::{fs::File, io::Write};

    use crate::{BaseWriter, ImplWriter};

    #[test]
    fn test_main() {
        let mut writer = File::create("./test.out").unwrap();
        let impl_writer = ImplWriter::vtable(&mut writer);
        let mut impl_writer = ImplWriter {
            base: impl_writer,
            x: writer,
        };
        let impl_writer: *mut _ = &mut impl_writer;
        let impl_writer: *mut BaseWriter = impl_writer as _;
        unsafe {
            let f = (*impl_writer).write;
            f(impl_writer, format!("========\n").as_bytes()).unwrap()
        }
    }
}

but for then of futures, this method does not work. Also a boxed trait object can not be send to FFI directly for the Sized constraints on then.