Portfolio Dev EP5: Converting NextJS to Rust

Yeah...so there's some changes.

I decided to switch from using NextJS to using Rust. In reality, this is overkill for a portfolio website, and you will probably see no difference. Let me explain.

Javascript vs. Rust + WHY?

These two languages are usually not used for the same purpose.

Javascript is a dynamically typed language that is used for web development. It's relatively easy to pick up, and it's versatile in terms of what it can be used for (browsers, servers, mobile/desktop apps, etc.).

Rust, on the other hand, is a statically typed language that is mainly used for systems programming. It's a lower-level language that gives more control over system-level details such as memory management.

Now...while I say that I "switched to Rust", I am still using Javascript for my templated HTML files. I just replaced the backend (specifically the static site generator and the web server).

I made this change because I wanted to try using Rust for some kind of real-world project.

The New Stack

I'm using Axum, a web framework for designing web applications and REST APIs. The core of Axum is built on top of Tokio - a runtime for building a bunch of asynchronous systems. This part of the stack is what handles all the HTTP requests and responses. It's also what handles the routing of the different pages.

The HTML files are all templated using Tera, a template engine for Rust. It boasts features such as Jinja-like syntax and comprehensive debugging information. Together, these two technologies can do server-side rendering really quickly.

At build time, Rust parses the markdown files, runs tera scripts, and then dumps the resulting HTML files into a production folder. This way, most of the work during runtime is just sending files.

From there, Axum is used for routing. It receives a request and checks if there's a file that matches the request. It also has has a fallback (fancy word for "adding a .html to the file name if it doesn't exist").

The only real "dynamic" thing on the page is the spotify text at the footer. That stuff is client side because...well...there isn't a nice way to get around that.

Minor Frontend Tweaks

I actually stopped using Tailwind completely (at least for now), so all the styling is just basic CSS.

I was playing around with some fancy visuals (most of which were vibe coded), but I decided to revert back to something more minimalistic. Therefore, you might notice a few less gradients and blobby shapes.

Anyways, small blog this time - I decided that I shouldn't really be doing large code breakdowns for EVERYTHING - I have to learn how to present the gist of what I'm doing. After all, if you're interested enough to be reading more, you can easily find my Github.

Toodles.