Rust bindings based on C bindings

[alpinebuster]

Rust bindings based on C bindings which should be simpler than JS. In scenarios where more popular and user-friendly UIs are needed to interact with MeshLib, using MeshLib as an npm package or a Rust crate would be much more convenient. Compared to these options, writing UIs in C++ remains relatively complex.

[adalisk-emikhaylov]

We eventually plan to support more languages, but each new language takes a few man-months of work, so we have to be really careful with what we choose. The plan is to support JS next, because we want to allow using MeshLib in web applications, on the client side.

Rust would be nice to have, but it's not a priority for us right now. I'm also a bit worried about how the bindings would interact with the borrow checker.

Re UI, is the situation in Rust significantly better than in C++? We use ImGui for MeshInspector, and there are some other mature frameworks to choose from (Qt, Gtkmm...).

[alpinebuster]

Thank you for your patient and detailed response.

While C++ remains the undisputed sovereign of heavy-duty industrial software, such as 3D rendering engines, mesh processing suites like MeshInspector, and legacy GUI frameworks like Qt, Rust’s ecosystem offers a compelling alternative for modern development. Cargo’s streamlined package management provides a far superior developer experience compared to the convoluted CMake, vcpkg, and Conan pipeline, which significantly accelerates development velocity. Furthermore, Rust’s Borrow Checker effectively eliminates memory leaks and data races at compile-time. For rapid prototyping, 3D experimentation, and small-scale academic research, leveraging MeshLib in tandem with egui proves to be a vastly more efficient and ergonomic workflow.