Xilem: an architecture for UI in Rust

raphlinus.github.io

Rust is an appealing language for building user interfaces for a variety of reasons, especially the promise of delivering both performance and safety. However, finding a good architecture is challenging. Architectures that work well in other languages generally don’t adapt well to Rust, mostly because they rely on shared mutable state and that is not idiomatic Rust, to put it mildly. It is sometimes asserted for this reason that Rust is a poor fit for UI. I have long believed that it is possible to find an architecture for UI well suited to implementation in Rust, but my previous attempts (including the current Druid architecture) have all been flawed. I have studied a range of other Rust UI projects and don’t feel that any of those have suitable architecture either.