I just have a hard time deciphering what the intention was with these single character things. Are you suggesting to use 'a_lifetime? What is that good reason? I usually use longer names to help the next person reading my code.
Rust was originally implemented in OCaml, and takes a lot of inspiration from it. The ‘a syntax is used by OCaml for generic type parameters.
Rust is in a weird spot because we have two different kinds of generic parameters: types and lifetimes. They need to be distinguished from one another somehow. Nobody loves the lifetime syntax, but nobody has ever proposed something that would end up significantly better.
I’m not proposing you should use ‘a_lifetime, I’m saying you could. In the end, it ends up obscuring more than helping.
It’s not a language level constraint to name lifetimes with a single letter. But folks tend to not use longer names for good reason.