Zig Interface Revisited
10 months ago
- #Zig
- #DynamicDispatch
- #Polymorphism
- Zig lacks built-in interfaces but supports polymorphism through dynamic dispatch.
- Polymorphism in Zig can be achieved via generics, tagged unions, or VTable interfaces.
- VTable interfaces enable dynamic dispatch and uniform typing for heterogeneous implementations.
- Example use case: A logging system with different backends (debug, file) sharing a common interface.
- The Logger interface uses an opaque pointer and function pointers (vtable) for dynamic dispatch.
- Implementations (DbgLogger, FileLogger) remain independent and unaware of the interface.
- Advantages include clean separation, extensibility, and uniform type storage.
- Trade-offs include manual boilerplate and minimal runtime indirection.
- Future improvements may reduce boilerplate, but current approach offers flexibility.