Rust is the answer to the wrong question
a day ago
- Porting an app to another language, like Rust, optimizes initial development but overlooks the long-term challenge of maintenance.
- Repeated one-shot rewrites are not a solution to security vulnerabilities; what is needed is a robust contract layer with escape hatches and a compiler.
- The author's scheduling app required offline capability, which led to transpilation of Ruby/ERB to JavaScript via Roundhouse and Spinel.
- Transpilation allows a single source of truth to generate applications in multiple languages (JavaScript, Rust, Kotlin, Swift), with optimizations and feature parity.
- The article advocates for capturing intent rather than mechanism, with a contract layer that can adapt to changing requirements.