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Rust effort aims to make smart pointers as flexible as references

lwn.net by daroc Editor score 6/10

Rust language team lead Tyler Mandry discussed a long-running effort to let user-defined smart pointers support operations currently available only to built-in references. The work could expand how Rust libraries express pointer-like abstractions.

What

A Rust language-team effort aims to make user-defined smart pointers as flexible as built-in references.

How

Some operations available with built-in references cannot currently be performed with user-defined smart pointers.

Why it matters

Greater flexibility would let engineers use custom smart pointers in more situations that currently require references.

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