Visualizing Rust's Vtables: How dyn Trait Works In Memory
Summary
This technical post explains how Rust implements dynamic dispatch using dyn Trait, including how vtables and wide pointers enable runtime method resolution. It compares Rust's approach with C++ virtual functions and CRTP, discusses static vs dynamic dispatch, zero-sized types, and object safety rules. The article includes memory-layout experiments and code examples to illustrate how data and vtable pointers are used in practice.