Trait with generic container return type

help
1

I have this trait:

pub trait S<T>{
    fn s(&self) -> Box<dyn S<T>>;
}

but what if I want it to be thread safe sometimes and sometimes not?

I want to be generic on the container that has the return type:

pub trait S<T, Container>{
    fn s(&self) -> Container<dyn S<T>>;
}

is there a way to do it?
but I get

   Compiling playground v0.0.1 (/playground)
error[E0109]: type arguments are not allowed for this type
 --> src/lib.rs:2:30
  |
2 |     fn s(&self) -> Container<dyn S<T>>;
  |                              ^^^^^^^^ type argument not allowed

For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0109`.
2

Which containers would you like to be generic over?

3

Box and Arc and sometimes Arc<Mutex<>>

4

How do you plan to use this trait in context? I'm having trouble understanding why you would want the implementor of the trait to decide whether to return Box<...> or Arc<...> or etc., and why this function needs to be part of a trait at all.

5

To elaborate a bit: it seems strange to have a generic trait with a method whose return type is a boxed trait object for the same trait. I think that's probably not the design you want to solve whatever problem you're facing, and hopefully with some more context we can figure out a better design.

To address the original question, Rust's unstable support for generic associated types does target this kind of thing, but currently traits with GATs are not object safe.

6

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