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Explicitly document the size guarantees that Option makes. #75454

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21 changes: 17 additions & 4 deletions library/core/src/option.rs
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -70,10 +70,23 @@
//! }
//! ```
//!
//! This usage of [`Option`] to create safe nullable pointers is so
//! common that Rust does special optimizations to make the
//! representation of [`Option`]`<`[`Box<T>`]`>` a single pointer. Optional pointers
//! in Rust are stored as efficiently as any other pointer type.
//! # Representation
//!
//! Rust guarantees to optimize the following types `<T>` such that an
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Suggested change
//! Rust guarantees to optimize the following types `<T>` such that an
//! Rust guarantees to optimize the following types `T` such that an

I never saw <T> as notation for a type, not sure what that is supposed to indicate.

//! [`Option<T>`] has the same size as `T`:
//!
//! * [`Box<T>`]
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This wording is pretty confusing to me, I think because it uses the same name T to mean two different things. For example this line is talking about what happens when T = Box<T> ... which is never true.

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I struggled to find a good phrasing here; I agree the current phrasing isn't great.

Might something like:

//! Rust guarantees that the following types are optimised such that their size
//! is identical whether or not they are surrounded by an `Option`:

be clearer?

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Maybe just use Box<_> or Box<U>. Naming things is generally a good idea, so I'd not remove the T in the introduction.

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Fixed in 68209c3.

//! * `&T`
//! * `&mut T`
//! * `extern "C" fn`
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//! * [`num::NonZero*`]
//! * [`ptr::NonNull<T>`]
//! * `#[repr(transparent)]` struct around one of the types in this list.
//!
//! For the above cases, it is guaranteed that one can [`mem::transmute`]
//! from all valid values of `T` to `Option<T>` and from
//! `Some::<T>(_)` to `T` (but transmuting `None::<T>` to `T` is undefined
//! behaviour).
//!
//! # Examples
//!
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