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K0nservtoday at 9:52 AM3 repliesview on HN

There is work happening on keyword generics[0], which would let a function be generic over keywords like `async` and `const`.

For now the best option to write code that wants to live in both worlds is sans-io. Thomas Eizinger at Fireguard has written a good article about this[1] pattern. Not only does it nicely solve the sync/async issue, but it also makes testing easier and opens the door to techniques like DST[2]

I have my own writing on the topic[3], which highlights that the problem is wider than just async vs sync due to different executors.

0: https://github.com/rust-lang/effects-initiative

1: https://www.firezone.dev/blog/sans-io

2: https://notes.eatonphil.com/2024-08-20-deterministic-simulat...

3: https://hugotunius.se/2024/03/08/on-async-rust.html


Replies

treydtoday at 12:50 PM

Keyword generics are probably not happening because it's kinda a hack.

Algebraic effects are the way forward, but that's a long way off.

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ignoreusernamestoday at 11:15 AM

I may have missed something, but how does “sans-io” deal with CPU heavy code? For example, if there’s some heavy decoding/encoding required on the data? Does the event loop only drive the network side and the heavy part is done after the loop is finished?

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paavohtltoday at 11:23 AM

Considering the latest commits and issues in effects-initiative are about 2 years old, the keyword generics initiative seems effectively dead.