#+BLOG: arenzanaorg
#+POSTID: 438
#+DATE: [2022-01-11 Tue 16:30]
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil num:nil todo:nil pri:nil tags:nil ^:nil
#+CATEGORY: emacs,dev
#+TAGS[]: tech
#+DESCRIPTION:
#+TITLE: Emacs for Rust Development

* Emacs > Visual Studio Code
There's a good chance I'm a hater or that I don't know what I'm doing. After a couple of hours trying to set up VS Code for Rust development, I ended up frustrated not understanding how to simply call the compiler or the debugger from the interface. I looked for ~rust-mode~ on Github and 15 minutes later I was up and running on Emacs. Maybe it's my previous experience with [[https://arenzana.org/posts/2019-12-03-emacs-go-mode-revisited/][Go]] development set ups that made it all quite simple.

* Rust on Emacs
I approached this the same way I approached Go: let's get regular syntax highlighting, linting, formatting, and compiling first and we'll worry about debuggers later. I'm a bit old school when it comes to approaching debugging.
We end up with the following on the Emacs config (if you use ~use-package~):

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
  (use-package rust-mode
    :defer t
    :ensure t
    :init
      (add-hook 'rust-mode-hook
              (lambda () (setq indent-tabs-mode nil)))
      (setq rust-format-on-save t)
      (add-hook 'rust-mode-hook
          (lambda () (prettify-symbols-mode)))
      (add-hook 'rust-mode-hook #'lsp)
    :bind (("M-," . rust-compile))
  )
  (use-package flycheck-rust
  :ensure t
  :hook (flycheck-mode-hook . flycheck-rust-setup))
#+end_src

Here, we load the mode for Rust development. Auto-indent with spaces, run ~rustfmt~ on save (needs to be installed via [[https://rustup.rs/][rustup]]. Prettify symbols (cause why not), and use language server protocol. I'm binding "M-," to compile; I know it's an odd keybinding, but I'm used to it by now. Feel free to make it your own.

In addition to this, I'm hooking ~flycheck~ for linting.

* Conclusion
IntelliJ made it very easy to set up as well, but that's a multi-hundred dollar application. If you're on a budget, Emacs, vim, or VSCode should bet viable options as well.

I'm still getting started with Rust and I don't know how much it will stick, since I've been writing Go for a number of years; but I'm happy I have a familiar environment to get started from. By now I should know Emacs should *always* be my first option.