public/subjects/ref_cell

ref_cell

Instructions

First part (messenger.rs)

Create a module called messenger. This module will be able to inform a user of how many references of a given value he is using. The main objective of this module is to limit how many times a value is referenced.

For this module the following must be created:

• A trait Logger which implements three functions: warning, info, error. All functions should receive a reference to themselves and a string literal.

    fn warning(&self, msg: &str);
    fn info(&self, msg: &str);
    fn error(&self, msg: &str);

• A structure called Tracker, which must have the fields: logger being a reference to the Logger, value being the count of how many times the value was referenced, max being the max count of references the actual value can achieve.

• An implementation of three functions that are associated to the Tracker structure:

  • new that will initialize the structure
  • set_value that sets the value to the Tracker structure and writes to the trait functions. This should be done comparing the max and the number of referenced of the actual value. If the percentage is equal or greater to 100% of the limit usage, it should write "Error: you are over your quota!" to the error function If the percentage is equal or greater to 70% of the limit usage, it should write ("Warning: you have used up over {}% of your quota! Proceeds with precaution", <calculated_percentage>) to the warning function
  • peek that will take a peek of how much usage the variable already has. It should write ("Info: you are using up too {}% of your quote", <calculated_percentage>) to the info function

Second part (lib.rs)

Afterwards you must use the module messenger and create the following:

• A structure Worker that has the fields:
  • track_value this will be the value that will be tracked by the tracker.
  • mapped_messages that will have the latest messages. This must be a HashMap with the key being the type of message sent by the logger (info, error or warning) and the value being the message
  • all_messages that will be a vector of all messages sent.
• A new function that initializes the structure Worker
• To use the trait Logger you must implement it for the Worker structure. Each function (warning, error and info) must insert the message to the respective fields of the structure Worker.

You must use interior mutability, this means it must be able to mutate data even when there are immutable references to that data. Consequently, the user will not need to use the keyword mut (tip: RefCell)

Notions

• std::cell::RefCell
• Struct std::rc::Rc

Usage

Here is a program to test your function,

use ref_cell::*;

fn main() {
    // initialize the worker
    let logger = Worker::new(1);

    // initialize the tracker, with the max number of
    // called references as 10
    let track = Tracker::new(&logger, 10);

    let _a = logger.track_value.clone();    // |\
    let _a1 = logger.track_value.clone();   // | -> increase the Rc to 4 references
    let _a2 = logger.track_value.clone();   // |/

    // take a peek of how much we already used from our quota
    track.peek(&logger.track_value);

    let _b = logger.track_value.clone();  // |\
    let _b1 = logger.track_value.clone(); // |  -> increase the Rc to 8 references
    let _b2 = logger.track_value.clone(); // | /
    let _b3 = logger.track_value.clone(); // |/

    // this will set the value and making a verification of
    // how much we already used of our quota
    track.set_value(&logger.track_value);

    let _c = logger.track_value.clone(); // | -> increase the Rc to 9 references

    // this will set the value and making a verification of
    // how much we already used of our quota
    track.set_value(&logger.track_value);

    let _c1 = logger.track_value.clone(); // | -> increase the Rc to 10 references, this will be the limit

    track.set_value(&logger.track_value);

    for (k ,v) in logger.mapped_messages.into_inner() {
        println!("{:?}", (k ,v));
    }
    println!("{:?}", logger.all_messages.into_inner());
}

And its output:

student@ubuntu:~/[[ROOT]]/test$ cargo run
("Info", "you are using up too 40% of your quote")
("Warning", "you have used up over 90% of your quota! Proceeds with precaution")
("Error", "you are over your quota!")
[
  "Info: you are using up too 40% of your quote",
  "Warning: you have used up over 80% of your quota! Proceeds with precaution",
  "Warning: you have used up over 90% of your quota! Proceeds with precaution",
  "Error: you are over your quota!"
]
student@ubuntu:~/[[ROOT]]/test$