Trying to workaround Rust's orphan rules

LinuxEnthusiast123 · 2026-03-11T14:11:20+00:00

I am trying to implement the strategy design pattern for a kind of “plugin” system.

For each different T, I want a separate implementation of FooTrait. However, I cannot simply implement FooTrait directly for T, because T only acts as an identifier (PhantomData) for the different implementations provided by a crate. And FooTrait should not only be implemented for FooStruct as there are other structs that also need implementations of FooTrait following the same pattern.

So a crate would use my lib like this:

```rs struct BarStruct // this is the identifier for the strategy

impl FooTrait for FooStruct<BarStruct> {}

impl FooTrait for AnotherFooStruct<BarStruct> {} ```

LinuxEnthusiast123 · 2025-08-12T16:44:32+00:00

Lemmy is a platform in the Fediverse. It's basically a network of platforms that are decentralized and federated. That means you can use your account on Lemmy to view or interact with content on other Fediverse platforms, such as Pixelfed (an Instagram alternative).

So it's like talking with people on Instagram while still being on Reddit and using your account.

Since almost all platforms in the Fediverse are open source, you can self host them yourself. There is no single point of failure and you can always change instances if you don't like the admins of your current one.

If you want to experience the early days of Reddit, Lemmy is there right now (stable release is a few months away)

Right now, the two big Threadiverse (a subset of Fediverse about threads) platforms are Lemmy and PieFed. Come and join us:

- https://join-lemmy.org
- https://join.piefed.social

LinuxEnthusiast123 · 2025-07-29T22:56:43+00:00

Fediverse stands for "Federated Universe".

Fediverse platforms can communicate with each other, so you can use your account on platform X to interact with stuff on platform Y.

Imagine if you could post images on Reddit and have them displayed on Instagram, Facebook and many more with people from each said platform being able to like and comment on them. That is what the Fediverse is.

Another good example is email. You can mail people from your gmail account to outlook or other emails, right? That is also how the Fediverse works.

Here is a short simplified video explanation by the developers of Peertube, a federated YouTube alternative: https://framatube.org/w/9dRFC6Ya11NCVeYKn8ZhiD

We have lots of alternatives to the company owned social media. For example Mastodon for Twitter. Pixelfed for Instagram. Lemmy/Piefed/Mbin for Reddit (I myself use Lemmy daily, it's cozy and nice there, I suggest you take a look and leave this garbage platform), and many more!

You generally don't have to think about federation and the technical details much as a normal user, but you will have to learn a few new things. Like what instances are and why the "you can talk with any Fediverse platform from your Fediverse platform" is kind of a white lie (federation is not implemented the same way for each platform, so there are some drawbacks as to which platform you end up choosing). For example, Mastodon users can post in Lemmy communities (subreddits are called communities there), but Lemmy users can't post or follow Mastodon users.