Rc and RefCell within parent / child struct relationship

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5

You can use a wrapper struct to add your own methods to Rc<RefCell<...>>:

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Debug, Default, Clone)]
pub struct Handle<T>(Rc<RefCell<T>>);

#[derive(Debug, Default, Clone)]
pub struct Main {
    pub child: Handle<MainChild>,
    pub count: i32,
}

impl Main {
    pub fn create() -> Handle<Self> {
        let main = Main {
            child: MainChild::create(),
            count: 0,
        };
        Handle(Rc::new(RefCell::new(main)))
    }
}

impl Handle<Main> {
    pub fn render(& self) {
       // use std::borrow::BorrowMut;
        println!("{:?}", self);
        println!("{:?}", self.0.borrow().child);
       // println!("{:?}", self.child.borrow_mut());
        self.0.borrow().child.render();
    }
}

#[derive(Debug, Default, Clone)]
pub struct MainChild {
    pub count: i32,
}

impl MainChild {
    pub fn create() -> Handle<Self> {
        let child = MainChild { count: 0 };
        Handle(Rc::new(RefCell::new(child)))
    }
}

impl Handle<MainChild> {
    pub fn render(& self) {
        self.0.borrow_mut().count += 1;
        println!("{:?}", self);
    }
}

pub fn main() {
    let main = Main::create();
    main.render();
}

(Playground)