Several trait implementations as a single type

[Tyrn]

Hi,

I've got something like this:

pub trait Spinner {
    fn new() -> Self;
    fn message(&self, line: String);
    fn stop(&mut self);
}
pub struct DaddySpinner {
    spinner: Option<daddy::SpinnerHandle>,
}
impl Spinner for DaddySpinner { ... }

pub struct PrettySpinner {
    spinner: Option<pretty::Spinner>,
}
impl Spinner for PrettySpinner { ... }

pub struct CuteSpinner {
    spinner: Option<cute::SpinnerHandle>,
}
impl Spinner for CuteSpinner { ... }

Employed this way:

struct GlobalState {
    pub spinner: spin::DaddySpinner,
    ...
}
fn main() {
    let mut g = GlobalState {
        spinner: spin::DaddySpinner::new(),
        ...
    };
    ...
}

Whenever I want to change the spinner, I have to replace <...>Spinner in two places. What's the best way to make the spinners naturally interchangeable?

[kornel]

You can use Box<dyn Spinner> as a universal type that can hold any of the spinners. It can be changed even at run time.

Alternatively, you can parametrize GlobalState by spinner:

struct GlobalState<S: Spinner> {
   spinner: S,
}

[Phlopsi]

Spinner isn't object-safe, because of new.

Declaring it as fn new() -> Self where Self: Sized should do the trick. It won't be possible to call new on a dyn Spinner.

[Tyrn]

Somehow, I can't figure out what else do I have to do after

struct GlobalState<S: Spinner> {
   spinner: S,
}

[kpreid]

If you just want to keep the required edit simpler and not change anything else, you can replace

spinner: spin::DaddySpinner::new(),

with

spinner: Spinner::new(),

and it will call the trait implementation's new() for whichever concrete type is chosen. This will also work if you make GlobalState generic.