Compact, clone-on-write vector and string.
An EcoVec is a reference-counted clone-on-write vector. It takes up two
words of space (= 2 usize) and has the same memory layout as a &[T] slice.
Within its allocation, it stores a reference count, its capacity and its
elements.
An EcoString is a reference-counted clone-on-write string with inline
storage. It takes up 16 bytes of space. It has 15 bytes of inline storage and
starting from 16 bytes it becomes an EcoVec<u8>.
```rust // This is stored inline. let small = ecow::EcoString::from("Welcome");
// This spills to the heap, but only once: big and third share the
// same underlying allocation. Vectors and spilled strings are only
// really cloned upon mutation.
let big = small + " to earth! 🌱";
let mut third = big.clone();
// This allocates again to mutate third without affecting big.
asserteq!(third.pop(), Some('🌱'));
asserteq!(third, "Welcome to earth! ");
```
| Type | Details |
|:--------------------------------------------|:--------|
| Vec<T> / String | Normal vectors are a great general purpose data structure. But they have a quite big footprint (3 machine words) and are expensive to clone. The EcoVec has a bit of overhead for mutation, but is cheap to clone and only takes two words. |
| Arc<Vec<T>> / Arc<String> | These require two allocations instead of one and are less convenient to mutate. |
| Arc<[T]> / Arc<str> | While these require only one allocation, they aren't mutable. |
| Small vector | Different trade-off. Great when there are few, small Ts, but expensive to clone when spilled to the heap. |
| Small string | The EcoString combines different small string qualities into a very practical package: It has inline storage, a smaller footprint than a normal String, is efficient to clone even when spilled, and at the same time mutable. |
This crate is dual-licensed under the MIT and Apache 2.0 licenses.