any-mpsc

A wrapper for an mpsc::channel that allows arbitrary types to be passed through. Comes in 2 different flavors.

any_mpsc::channel

The any_mpsc::channel function may be used to create a basic (AnySender, AnyReceiver). AnySender takes any value and sends it through the underlying channel with the send method (internally as a Box<dyn Any>). AnyReceiver contains generic versions of recv, recv_timeout, and try_recv. If the generic parameter supplied doesn't correspond with the type the AnySender pushed through, a AnyRecvError::WrongType(Box<dyn Any>) will be returned containing the value.

any_mpsc::buffered_channel

Probably more useful, the buf_recv default feature enables the any_mpsc::buffered_channel function. This will return a (AnySender, BufferedReceiver). The BufferedReceiver works differently from the AnyReceiver in that if an unmatching generic type is supplied, it will instead return a AnyRecvError::BufRecvError(TypeId). The actual value will be stored in its internal buffer, and the next time recv, recv_timeout, or try_recv is called with a generic parameter matching its type, that buffered value will be returned and removed from the buffer. Additional methods for interaction with the channel and buffer exist, see the table at the bottom of this section.

Example:

fn receive_handler<T: Debug + 'static>(rx: &mut BufferedReceiver)
{
    match rx.recv::<T>()
    {
        Ok(result) => println!("{:?}", result),
        Err(AnyRecvError::BufRecvError(type_id)) => println!("Type with id {:?} added to buffer", type_id),
        Err(e) => eprintln!("{}", e)
    }
}

let (tx, mut rx) = any_mpsc::buffered_channel();

tx.send(55.7f32)?;
tx.send(String::from("example"))?;

receive_handler::<f32>(&mut rx);
receive_handler::<f32>(&mut rx);
receive_handler::<String>(&mut rx);

The output is this:

55.7
Type with id TypeId { t: 7854412396444247302 } added to buffer
"example"