RFC | Trait Based Architecture

[LeoBorai]

As more feature requirements and improvement suggestions arise, the need to allow releases on partially supported features also increments.

An example could be the feature request on #7, which aims to provide a MAC addresses field for the NetworkInterface struct.
So far, support for macOS is on the works, but as such feature is not even in a development phase for other platforms (being Linux and Windows), the release could be delayed to avoid breaking struct definitions in other platforms if the API remains the same.

To solve such issue, a pattern that allows to provide feature support on different platforms without affecting API definitions on the NetworkInterface struct could help.

The approach would require the use of a trait that may be implemented (or not) based on some platform.
Whenever a trait is implemented on all supported platforms, a major release could be published normalizing such field as part of the stable struct definition and deprecating the trait.

Example Usage

use network_interface::{NetworkInterface, NetworkInterfaceConfig , MacAddress};

fn main() {
    // Show comes as part of the `NetworkInterfaceConfig` trait which is supported by
    // all target platforms. At this point, such method could be moved to the `NetworkInterface`
    // struct, deprecating the `NetworkInterfaceConfig` trait.
    let netifas = NetworkInterface::show();
    let any_netifa = netifa.get("en0").unwrap();

    // The method _mac_address_ is provided by the `MacAddress` `trait` which may
    // not be available for certain platforms at some point in time.
    //
    // For instance, such trait could be implemented for Linux but not for macOS nor
    // Windows.
    let en0_mac_address = any_netifa.mac_address();
}

This approach could limit a bit usage on multi-platform solutions, but will allow users to consume the crate for certain needs while full support is provided.