Traits and impls

Traits and impls provide a way to define abstract behavior and implement it in a concrete manner. Traits define a set of related functions, while impls provide the actual implementation of those functions. This feature promotes code reusability and modular design.

Example

trait Display<T> {
    fn display(x: T) -> Array<u8>;
}

impl DisplayUsize of Display<usize> {
    fn display(x: usize) -> Array<u8> {
        ...
    }
}

fn main() {
    // Can be called by the trait name.
    let a = Display::display(5_usize);
    // Can be called by the impl name.
    let b = DisplayUsize::display(5_usize);
    // Cannot be called by the type name.
    // T::display(value) - Does not work.
}

Note that unlike Rust, impls have names, so that they can be explicitly specified.

Impls as generic parameters

In Cairo, impls can be used as generic parameters, allowing for a more flexible and modular design. For example, the following code defines a function that takes a generic parameter T and an implementation of the Display<T> trait:

fn foo<T, impl TDisplay: Display<T>>(value: T) {
    let a = TDisplay::display(5_usize);
    let b = Display::display(value);
}

Impl inference

When a trait function is called, the compiler will try to infer the impl.

Methods

Impls are used to define methods.

"of" keyword and difference from Rust

In Cairo, the of keyword is used in impls to specify the concrete trait that is being implemented, rather than implementing the trait for a specific type, as is done in Rust with the for keyword. The main difference between Cairo and Rust in this context is that Cairo doesn’t have a direct type-to-trait implementation relationship. Instead, Cairo emphasizes implementing the trait directly, with the concrete trait name specified after the of keyword.