Type System and Traits

📖 Learning Objectives

Understand Rust's static type system and trait system, learn how to use generics and trait bounds, and compare them with JavaScript's dynamic type system.

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🎯 Type System Comparison

JavaScript's Dynamic Typing

JavaScript is a dynamically typed language, where types are determined at runtime:

Rust's Static Typing

Rust is a statically typed language, where types are determined at compile time:

Type System Differences

1. Static vs. Dynamic: Rust checks types at compile time; JavaScript checks at runtime.
2. Type Safety: Rust prevents type errors, while JavaScript allows type coercion.
3. Performance: Rust has zero-cost abstractions; JavaScript has runtime overhead.
4. Developer Experience: Rust provides compile-time error feedback; JavaScript has runtime errors.

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🔧 The Trait System

Defining and Implementing Traits

Key Concepts of Traits

1. Shared Behavior: Traits define a set of methods that a type must implement.
2. Ad-hoc Polymorphism: Allows different types to be treated as the same trait.
3. Default Implementation: Traits can provide default method implementations.
4. Trait Bounds: Enforce that a generic type must implement a specific trait.
5. Trait Objects: Use dyn Trait for dynamic dispatch at runtime.