MABELab-RS/TRANSLATION_GLOSSARY.md

Translation Glossary: C++ → Rust

This glossary defines consistent mappings from MABE2 / Empirical idioms to MabeLabRS Rust code. It should be updated as the port progresses.

Memory / Pointers

• std::unique_ptr<T> → Box<T>
• std::shared_ptr<T> → Arc<T> (multi-thread safe), or Rc<T> (single-thread)
• std::weak_ptr<T> → Weak<T> (Arc/Rc)
• raw pointer (owning) → Box<T>
• raw pointer (borrowed) → &T or &mut T

Optional / Variants

• std::optional<T> → Option<T>
• std::variant<A,B> → enum { A(A), B(B) }

Containers

• std::vector<T> → Vec<T>
• std::map<K,V> → BTreeMap<K,V> (ordered, deterministic)
• std::unordered_map<K,V> → HashMap<K,V> or IndexMap<K,V> (deterministic)
• std::set<T> → BTreeSet<T>

Interfaces / Inheritance

• C++ abstract base class → Rust trait
• C++ pure virtual function → fn ...; in trait
• C++ virtual function → default method in trait

Errors

• Error codes / exceptions → Result<T, E> with thiserror derive

Utilities

• C++ RNG (emp::Random) → rand_chacha::ChaCha8Rng seeded via manifest
• Empirical Config → serde + toml/json
• Empirical Signals/Actions → strongly typed Rust event bus (observer pattern)