Dioxus Prototype

Previously I made web application prototypes using the Rust-based front-end frameworks Sycamore and Yew.  With the recent release of Dioxus version 0.4, I updated my Dioxus Prototype.  It demonstrates capabilities such as animation, form inputs, and static prerendering.

Rust-Dioxus Project Setup

Previously I used Angular to make Single Page Application (SPA) websites in the TypeScript programming language.  I then used the Angular tool Scully to statically prerender the SPA webpages for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and to be able to distribute the website code from a Content Delivery Network (CDN) instead of a web server.  When I switched over to the Rust programming language last year, I needed to learn new ways of doing things.

After a lengthy quest in which I explored a number of nascent Rust-based SPA libraries, I have finally figured out how to make this work which I have documented with step-by-step instructions in my new tutorial Rust-Dioxus Project Setup.  A few months ago I became the Organizer of the Dallas Rust User Meetup (DRUM) so I have created a website for that group that provides an online example of the techniques described in the tutorial.  I will be updating the tutorial over the next few months as my understanding of Dioxus improves in the process of converting my old websites.

Rust Podcast Duos

I updated my list of Rust Podcasts with two new entries:

• Rust Workshop
  
• Way of the Crab

I have listened to all eleven episodes so far of "Way of the Crab" and just started "Rust Workshop".  Both of these podcasts feature a co-host duo but each podcast has its own distinct personality.

Rust Mars

I am currently working on converting to the Rust programming language yet another Java applet that I originally wrote a couple of decades ago.  Mars is a tank combat game which provides a demonstration of the use of my Rust-based implementation of the A* algorithm.  Although you cannot control one of the tanks yet, you can toggle on options to visualize how each tank is using the A* algorithm for pathfinding.

I was struggling with a memory leak in Mars until a member of the Dallas Rust Meetup mentioned that the wee_alloc dependency that I was using for memory allocation with WebAssembly (Wasm) was known to have this issue.  I removed wee_alloc and the problem immediately disappeared.  I have since updated my Rust-webpack Project Setup tutorial to no longer include wee_alloc in the setup instructions.

Beginning Rust

Tonight I finished reading Beginning Rust: Get Started with Rust 2021 Edition (2e) by Carlo Milanesi.  I found some detailed explanations for difficult concepts in this book that I had not come across elsewhere including The Rust Book.  I also appreciated that the book teaches the formal terminology for the various language features.

I started reading "Beginning Rust" in parallel with another Rust book for beginners by a different author.  Whereas the other book teaches Rust to the reader by guiding them through example applications, this book focuses strictly on the language as demonstrated with code snippets.  I think the latter approach permitted the author of "Beginning Rust" to do a better job of putting the topics in prerequisite order.

Before "Beginning Rust", I also finished reading Rust for Rustaceans but I will have to read that one again in a year or two before I can review it properly as it was too advanced for me.  I think "Beginning Rust" is a better immediate follow-on to "The Rust Book".  I might look at Rust Atomics and Locks by Mara Bos next.

Rust Life

I implemented Conway's Game of Life in the Rust programming language and compiled it to WebAssembly (Wasm) so that it runs in a webpage.  I initialized the project directory using the steps from Rust-webpack Project Setup checklist and re-used code from my animated interactive Evolve simulation.

Rust-webpack Project Setup

As part of capturing my lessons learned from converting CroftSoft Evolve from a Java applet to a Rust-WebAssembly application, I started writing a Rust-webpack Project Setup tutorial checklist.  There is enough there now to get the "Hello, World!" example code running that I created for my now obsolete rust-webpack-template tutorial.

Rust Evolve

Two decades ago, I wrote the book Advanced Java Game Programming which taught readers how to make animated 2D games that would run in a webpage.  Now I am learning how to do that using Rust and WebAssembly.  Evolve is an animated interactive evolutionary algorithm simulation that you can play with that I recently converted from Java to Rust.  The code is available from my open source repository.

Using the rust-webpack-template

Using the rust-webpack-template is a checklist that I made for setting up projects that use Rust and WebAssembly instead of JavaScript to dynamically create webpage content.  Since rust-webpack-template has not been updated for a few years, the checklist includes steps for dealing with outdated dependencies.  It also includes starter code and an extensive list of related links.