RustConf 2023 - The standard library is special. Let's change that.

Rust

The standard library's unique characteristics, including nightly features and prelude, can be customized for optimization and error handling.

Key takeaways

The standard library is special in many ways, such as using nightly features, bypassing coherence, and having a prelude.
To make the standard library less special, fat preludes can be created and made available to all crates, but this requires a stability attribute.
The stability attribute can indicate whether an item is stable or not, and can be used to guarantee the size and layout of types.
The standard library has an implementation of Error that permits any error type to be converted into box_din_error.
The add trait is a language item because the compiler needs to know about it for optimization.
There are 232 lang items that are required for optimization, but are difficult to implement and require cooperation with the compiler.
Specialization is a difficult feature to implement and requires expertise in type theory.
Negative implications are useful for trait and language items, but can be eliminated by annotating the module.
Standard library has an impl for converting box_din_error to Result.
Specialization could solve the problem of unspecified behavior in the standard library.
Fat preludes would provide significant benefit, but there are edge cases to consider, such as when an unstable item is used.
Stable and unstable attributes handle whether an item is stable or not.
Default impl for all lengths is desirable, but would require expertise in type theory.
A prelude is something provided at the crate root and allows for implicit imports.

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