https://github.com/dannymcgee/nodejs-rust-ipc
Experiments with inter-process communication between a NodeJS front-end and a Rust back-end
https://github.com/dannymcgee/nodejs-rust-ipc
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Experiments with inter-process communication between a NodeJS front-end and a Rust back-end
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/dannymcgee/nodejs-rust-ipc
- Owner: dannymcgee
- License: mit
- Created: 2021-05-08T16:44:39.000Z (almost 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2021-05-08T17:40:30.000Z (almost 4 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-06T06:51:51.782Z (2 months ago)
- Language: TypeScript
- Homepage:
- Size: 10.7 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: readme.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# NodeJS / Rust IPC
This repo contains experiments and POCs for inter-process communication on
Windows between a NodeJS front-end and a Rust back-end.
### But... why?
The use case is for desktop applications where the GUI is developed with a
framework like Electron, but the business logic is written in a language like
Rust or C/C++ that can make the most of the system resources available. The
basic problem statement is:
- Systems languages are universally terrible at GUIs
- JavaScript (even on a blazing-fast interpreter like V8) is slow as molasses
### What about WebAssembly?
This seems to be the go-to solution for this type of problem, and there are some
good resources on the Googles for how to supercharge an Electron app with
WebAssembly modules, but this approach has limitations:
- WebAssembly is fast, but not as fast as compiling directly to native.
- WebAssembly is limited — it's designed for running in the browser, so (unless
I'm mistaken) it can't access system APIs, it can't handle multi-threading,
etc.
- Building a **desktop** application that runs WebAssembly inside a browser
instance feels like a hack on top of a hack — there must be a better way!