Review against the API guidelines

[jonas-schievink]

https://rust-lang.github.io/api-guidelines/

Part of #9. This should be pretty easy since after #11 the API consists of only 2 functions and a trait.

Checklist:

• Naming (crate aligns with Rust naming conventions)
  • Casing conforms to RFC 430 ([C-CASE])
  • Ad-hoc conversions follow as_, to_, into_ conventions ([C-CONV])
  • Getter names follow Rust convention ([C-GETTER])
  • Methods on collections that produce iterators follow iter, iter_mut, into_iter ([C-ITER])
  • Iterator type names match the methods that produce them ([C-ITER-TY])
  • Feature names are free of placeholder words ([C-FEATURE])
  • Names use a consistent word order ([C-WORD-ORDER])
• Interoperability (crate interacts nicely with other library functionality)
  • Types eagerly implement common traits ([C-COMMON-TRAITS])
    • Copy, Clone, Eq, PartialEq, Ord, PartialOrd, Hash, Debug,
      Display, Default
  • Conversions use the standard traits From, AsRef, AsMut ([C-CONV-TRAITS])
  • Collections implement FromIterator and Extend ([C-COLLECT])
  • Data structures implement Serde's Serialize, Deserialize ([C-SERDE])
  • Types are Send and Sync where possible ([C-SEND-SYNC])
  • Error types are meaningful and well-behaved ([C-GOOD-ERR])
  • Binary number types provide Hex, Octal, Binary formatting ([C-NUM-FMT])
  • Generic reader/writer functions take R: Read and W: Write by value ([C-RW-VALUE])
• Macros (crate presents well-behaved macros)
  • Input syntax is evocative of the output ([C-EVOCATIVE])
  • Macros compose well with attributes ([C-MACRO-ATTR])
  • Item macros work anywhere that items are allowed ([C-ANYWHERE])
  • Item macros support visibility specifiers ([C-MACRO-VIS])
  • Type fragments are flexible ([C-MACRO-TY])
• Documentation (crate is abundantly documented)
  • Crate level docs are thorough and include examples ([C-CRATE-DOC])
  • All items have a rustdoc example ([C-EXAMPLE])
  • Examples use ?, not try!, not unwrap ([C-QUESTION-MARK])
  • Function docs include error, panic, and safety considerations ([C-FAILURE])
  • Prose contains hyperlinks to relevant things ([C-LINK])
  • Cargo.toml includes all common metadata ([C-METADATA])
    • authors, description, license, homepage, documentation, repository,
      readme, keywords, categories
  • Crate sets html_root_url attribute "https://docs.rs/CRATE/X.Y.Z" ([C-HTML-ROOT])
  • Release notes document all significant changes ([C-RELNOTES])
  • Rustdoc does not show unhelpful implementation details ([C-HIDDEN])
• Predictability (crate enables legible code that acts how it looks)
  • Smart pointers do not add inherent methods ([C-SMART-PTR])
  • Conversions live on the most specific type involved ([C-CONV-SPECIFIC])
  • Functions with a clear receiver are methods ([C-METHOD])
  • Functions do not take out-parameters ([C-NO-OUT])
  • Operator overloads are unsurprising ([C-OVERLOAD])
  • Only smart pointers implement Deref and DerefMut ([C-DEREF])
  • Constructors are static, inherent methods ([C-CTOR])
• Flexibility (crate supports diverse real-world use cases)
  • Functions expose intermediate results to avoid duplicate work ([C-INTERMEDIATE])
  • Caller decides where to copy and place data ([C-CALLER-CONTROL])
  • Functions minimize assumptions about parameters by using generics ([C-GENERIC])
  • Traits are object-safe if they may be useful as a trait object ([C-OBJECT])
• Type safety (crate leverages the type system effectively)
  • Newtypes provide static distinctions ([C-NEWTYPE])
  • Arguments convey meaning through types, not bool or Option ([C-CUSTOM-TYPE])
  • Types for a set of flags are bitflags, not enums ([C-BITFLAG])
  • Builders enable construction of complex values ([C-BUILDER])
• Dependability (crate is unlikely to do the wrong thing)
  • Functions validate their arguments ([C-VALIDATE])
  • Destructors never fail ([C-DTOR-FAIL])
  • Destructors that may block have alternatives ([C-DTOR-BLOCK])
• Debuggability (crate is conducive to easy debugging)
  • All public types implement Debug ([C-DEBUG])
  • Debug representation is never empty ([C-DEBUG-NONEMPTY])
• Future proofing (crate is free to improve without breaking users' code)
  • Sealed traits protect against downstream implementations ([C-SEALED])
  • Structs have private fields ([C-STRUCT-PRIVATE])
  • Newtypes encapsulate implementation details ([C-NEWTYPE-HIDE])
  • Data structures do not duplicate derived trait bounds ([C-STRUCT-BOUNDS])
• Necessities (to whom they matter, they really matter)
  • Public dependencies of a stable crate are stable ([C-STABLE])
  • Crate and its dependencies have a permissive license ([C-PERMISSIVE])

[jonas-schievink]

* Functions validate their arguments ([C-VALIDATE])

We could do this by having the functions use well-known linker symbols instead of taking arguments, but that seems too limiting, makes the functions untestable, and requires that we specify which symbols to use. Let's not do this.

[jonas-schievink]

All items have a rustdoc example

As mentioned in #14, there's only a crate-level example that shows how to use both functions in conjunction with a linker script. Since that's really the only useful way to use this crate, I've left out function-level examples. And the Word trait is a sealed marker trait, so examples can't really be written for it.

[jamesmunns]

I would nominate this as "okay to close as-is".

[jonas-schievink]

Yeah, nobody in the meeting had any objections to this, so closing.