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<!doctype html><html lang=en dir=ltr class="blog-wrapper blog-post-page plugin-blog plugin-id-default" data-has-hydrated=false><meta charset=UTF-8><meta name=generator content="Docusaurus v3.6.0"><title data-rh=true>A Rustic re-podcasting server | The Old Speice Guy</title><meta data-rh=true name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0"><meta data-rh=true name=twitter:card content=summary_large_image><meta data-rh=true property=og:url content=https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting><meta data-rh=true property=og:locale content=en><meta data-rh=true name=docusaurus_locale content=en><meta data-rh=true name=docusaurus_tag content=default><meta data-rh=true name=docsearch:language content=en><meta data-rh=true name=docsearch:docusaurus_tag content=default><meta data-rh=true property=og:title content="A Rustic re-podcasting server | The Old Speice Guy"><meta data-rh=true name=description content="Learning Rust by fire (it sounds better than learning by corrosion)"><meta data-rh=true property=og:description content="Learning Rust by fire (it sounds better than learning by corrosion)"><meta data-rh=true property=og:type content=article><meta data-rh=true property=article:published_time content=2016-10-22T12:00:00.000Z><link data-rh=true rel=icon href=/img/favicon.ico><link data-rh=true rel=canonical href=https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting><link data-rh=true rel=alternate href=https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting hreflang=en><link data-rh=true rel=alternate href=https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting hreflang=x-default><script data-rh=true type=application/ld+json>{"@context":"https://schema.org","@id":"https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting","@type":"BlogPosting","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Bradlee Speice"},"dateModified":"2024-11-06T03:32:56.000Z","datePublished":"2016-10-22T12:00:00.000Z","description":"Learning Rust by fire (it sounds better than learning by corrosion)","headline":"A Rustic re-podcasting server","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://speice.io/","@type":"Blog","name":"Blog"},"keywords":[],"mainEntityOfPage":"https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting","name":"A Rustic re-podcasting server","url":"https://speice.io/2016/10/rustic-repodcasting"}</script><link rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml href=/rss.xml title="The Old Speice Guy RSS Feed"><link rel=alternate type=application/atom+xml href=/atom.xml title="The Old Speice Guy Atom Feed"><link rel=stylesheet href=https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/katex@0.13.24/dist/katex.min.css integrity=sha384-odtC+0UGzzFL/6PNoE8rX/SPcQDXBJ+uRepguP4QkPCm2LBxH3FA3y+fKSiJ+AmM crossorigin><link rel=stylesheet href=/assets/css/styles.ae6ff4a3.css><script src=/assets/js/runtime~main.751b419d.js defer></script><script src=/assets/js/main.62ce6156.js defer></script><body class=navigation-with-keyboard><script>!function(){var t,e=function(){try{return new URLSearchParams(window.location.search).get("docusaurus-theme")}catch(t){}}()||function(){try{return window.localStorage.getItem("theme")}catch(t){}}();t=null!==e?e:"light",document.documentElement.setAttribute("data-theme",t)}(),function(){try{for(var[t,e]of new URLSearchParams(window.location.search).entries())if(t.startsWith("docusaurus-data-")){var a=t.replace("docusaurus-data-","data-");document.documentElement.setAttribute(a,e)}}catch(t){}}()</script><div id=__docusaurus><div role=region aria-label="Skip to main content"><a class=skipToContent_fXgn href=#__docusaurus_skipToContent_fallback>Skip to main content</a></div><nav aria-label=Main class="navbar navbar--fixed-top"><div class=navbar__inner><div class=navbar__items><button aria-label="Toggle navigation bar" aria-expanded=false class="navbar__toggle clean-btn" type=button><svg width=30 height=30 viewBox="0 0 30 30" aria-hidden=true><path stroke=currentColor stroke-linecap=round stroke-miterlimit=10 stroke-width=2 d="M4 7h22M4 15h22M4 23h22"/></svg></button><a class=navbar__brand href=/><div class=navbar__logo><img src=/img/logo.svg alt="Sierpinski Gasket" class="themedComponent_mlkZ themedComponent--light_NVdE"><img
<p>I listen to a lot of Drum and Bass music, because it's beautiful music. And
there's a particular site, <a href=http://bassdrive.com/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">Bassdrive.com</a> that hosts
a lot of great content. Specifically, the
<a href=http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">archives</a> section of the site has a
list of the past shows that you can download and listen to. The issue is, it's
just a <a href=http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/6%20-%20Saturday/Electronic%20Warfare%20-%20The%20Overfiend/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">giant list of links to download</a>. I'd really like
this in a podcast format to take with me on the road, etc.</p>
<p>So I wrote the <a href=https://github.com/bspeice/elektricity target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">elektricity</a> web
application to actually accomplish all that. Whenever you request a feed, it
goes out to Bassdrive, processes all the links on a page, and serves up some
fresh, tasty RSS to satisfy your ears. I hosted it on Heroku using the free
tier because it's really not resource-intensive at all.</p>
<p><strong>The issue so far</strong> is that I keep running out of free tier hours during a
month because my podcasting application likes to have a server scan for new
episodes constantly. Not sure why it's doing that, but I don't have a whole
lot of control over it. It's a phenomenal application otherwise.</p>
<p><strong>My (over-engineered) solution</strong>: Re-write the application using the
<a href=https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">Rust</a> programming language. I'd like to run
this on a small hacker board I own, and doing this in Rust would allow me to
easily cross-compile it. Plus, I've been very interested in the Rust language
for a while and this would be a great opportunity to really learn it well.
The code is available <a href=https://github.com/bspeice/nutone target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> as development
progresses.</p>
<h2 class="anchor anchorWithStickyNavbar_LWe7" id=the-setup>The Setup<a href=#the-setup class=hash-link aria-label="Direct link to The Setup" title="Direct link to The Setup">​</a></h2>
<p>We'll be using the <a href=http://ironframework.io/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">iron</a> library to handle the
server, and <a href=http://hyper.rs/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">hyper</a> to fetch the data we need from elsewhere
on the interwebs. <a href=http://doc.servo.org/html5ever/index.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">HTML5Ever</a> allows
us to ingest the content that will be coming from Bassdrive, and finally,
output is done with <a href=http://sunng87.github.io/handlebars-rust/handlebars/index.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">handlebars-rust</a>.</p>
<p>It will ultimately be interesting to see how much more work must be done to
actually get this working over another language like Python. Coming from a
dynamic state of mind it's super easy to just chain stuff together, ship it out,
and call it a day. I think I'm going to end up getting much dirtier trying to
write all of this out.</p>
<h2 class="anchor anchorWithStickyNavbar_LWe7" id=issue-1-strings>Issue 1: Strings<a href=#issue-1-strings class=hash-link aria-label="Direct link to Issue 1: Strings" title="Direct link to Issue 1: Strings">​</a></h2>
<p>Strings in Rust are hard. I acknowledge Python can get away with some things
that make strings super easy (and Python 3 has gotten better at cracking down
on some bad cases, <code>str &lt;-> bytes</code> specifically), but Rust is hard.</p>
<p>Let's take for example the <code>404</code> error handler I'm trying to write. The result
should be incredibly simple: All I want is to echo back
<code>Didn't find URL: &lt;url></code>. Shouldn't be that hard right? In Python I'd just do
something like:</p>
<div class="language-python codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-python codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">def</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">echo_handler</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">return</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"You're visiting: {}"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token builtin" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">format</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token plain">uri</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>And we'd call it a day. Rust isn't so simple. Let's start with the trivial
examples people post online:</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">fn</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function-definition function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">hello_world</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">IronResult</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&lt;</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">with</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token namespace">status</span><span class="token namespace punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"You found the server!"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"></span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">}</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Doesn't look too bad right? In fact, it's essentially the same as the Python
version! All we need to do is just send back a string of some form. So, we
look up the documentation for <a href=http://ironframework.io/doc/iron/request/struct.Request.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>Request</code></a> and see a <code>url</code> field that will contain
what we want. Let's try the first iteration:</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">fn</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function-definition function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">hello_world</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">IronResult</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&lt;</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">with</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token namespace">status</span><span class="token namespace punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"You found the URL: "</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">+</span><span class="token plain"> req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token plain">url</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"></span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">}</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Which yields the error:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> error[E0369]: binary operation `+` cannot be applied to type `&'static str`</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>OK, what's going on here? Time to start Googling for <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=concatenate+strings+in+rust" target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">"concatenate strings in Rust"</a>. That's what we
want to do right? Concatenate a static string and the URL.</p>
<p>After Googling, we come across a helpful <a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/macro.concat!.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>concat!</code></a> macro that looks really nice! Let's try that one:</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">fn</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function-definition function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">hello_world</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">IronResult</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&lt;</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">with</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token namespace">status</span><span class="token namespace punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token macro property" style="color:hsl(5, 74%, 59%)">concat!</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"You found the URL: "</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token plain">url</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"></span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">}</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=curre
<p>And the error:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> error: expected a literal</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Turns out Rust actually blows up because the <code>concat!</code> macro expects us to know
at compile time what <code>req.url</code> is. Which, in my outsider opinion, is a bit
strange. <code>println!</code> and <code>format!</code>, etc., all handle values they don't know at
compile time. Why can't <code>concat!</code>? By any means, we need a new plan of attack.
How about we try formatting strings?</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">fn</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function-definition function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">hello_world</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">IronResult</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&lt;</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">with</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token namespace">status</span><span class="token namespace punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token macro property" style="color:hsl(5, 74%, 59%)">format!</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"You found the URL: {}"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token plain">url</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"></span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">}</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=cur
<p>And at long last, it works. Onwards!</p>
<h2 class="anchor anchorWithStickyNavbar_LWe7" id=issue-2-fighting-with-the-borrow-checker>Issue 2: Fighting with the borrow checker<a href=#issue-2-fighting-with-the-borrow-checker class=hash-link aria-label="Direct link to Issue 2: Fighting with the borrow checker" title="Direct link to Issue 2: Fighting with the borrow checker">​</a></h2>
<p>Rust's single coolest feature is how the compiler can guarantee safety in your
program. As long as you don't use <code>unsafe</code> pointers in Rust, you're guaranteed
safety. And not having truly manual memory management is really cool; I'm
totally OK with never having to write <code>malloc()</code> again.</p>
<p>That said, even <a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ownership.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">the Rust documentation</a> makes a specific note:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many new users to Rust experience something we like to call
‘fighting with the borrow checker’, where the Rust compiler refuses to
compile a program that the author thinks is valid.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If you have to put it in the documentation, it's not a helpful note:
it's hazing.</p>
<p>So now that we have a handler which works with information from the request, we
want to start making something that looks like an actual web application.
The router provided by <code>iron</code> isn't terribly difficult so I won't cover it.
Instead, the thing that had me stumped for a couple hours was trying to
dynamically create routes.</p>
<p>The unfortunate thing with Rust (in my limited experience at the moment) is that
there is a severe lack of non-trivial examples. Using the router is easy when
you want to give an example of a static function. But how do you you start
working on things that are a bit more complex?</p>
<p>We're going to cover that here. Our first try: creating a function which returns
other functions. This is a principle called <a href=http://stackoverflow.com/a/36321/1454178 target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">currying</a>. We set up a function that allows us to keep some data in scope
for another function to come later.</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">fn</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function-definition function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">build_handler</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">message</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">String</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Fn</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">IronResult</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&lt;</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">move</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token closure-params closure-punctuation punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">|</span><span class="token closure-params">_</span><span class="token closure-params punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token closure-params"> </span><span class="token closure-params operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token closure-params keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token closure-params"> </span><span class="token closure-params class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token closure-params closure-punctuation punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">|</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">with</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token namespace">status</span><span class="token namespace punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="co
<p>We've simply set up a function that returns another anonymous function with the
<code>message</code> parameter scoped in. If you compile this, you get not 1, not 2, but 5
new errors. 4 of them are the same though:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> error[E0277]: the trait bound `for&lt;'r, 'r, 'r> std::ops::Fn(&'r mut iron::Request&lt;'r, 'r>) -> std::result::Result&lt;iron::Response, iron::IronError> + 'static: std::marker::Sized` is not satisfied</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>...oookay. I for one, am not going to spend time trying to figure out what's
going on there.</p>
<p>And it is here that I will save the audience many hours of frustrated effort.
At this point, I decided to switch from <code>iron</code> to pure <code>hyper</code> since using
<code>hyper</code> would give me a much simpler API. All I would have to do is build a
function that took two parameters as input, and we're done. That said, it
ultimately posed many more issues because I started getting into a weird fight
with the <code>'static</code> <a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/lifetimes.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">lifetime</a>
and being a Rust newbie I just gave up on trying to understand it.</p>
<p>Instead, we will abandon (mostly) the curried function attempt, and instead
take advantage of something Rust actually intends us to use: <code>struct</code> and
<code>trait</code>.</p>
<p>Remember when I talked about a lack of non-trivial examples on the Internet?
This is what I was talking about. I could only find <em>one</em> example of this
available online, and it was incredibly complex and contained code we honestly
don't need or care about. There was no documentation of how to build routes that
didn't use static functions, etc. But, I'm assuming you don't really care about
my whining, so let's get to it.</p>
<p>The <code>iron</code> documentation mentions the <a href=http://ironframework.io/doc/iron/middleware/trait.Handler.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>Handler</code></a> trait as being something we can implement.
Does the function signature for that <code>handle()</code> method look familiar? It's what
we've been working with so far.</p>
<p>The principle is that we need to define a new <code>struct</code> to hold our data, then
implement that <code>handle()</code> method to return the result. Something that looks
like this might do:</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">struct</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token type-definition class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">EchoHandler</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> message</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">String</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"></span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">}</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain" style=display:inline-block></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"></span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">impl</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Handler</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">for</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">EchoHandler</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">fn</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token function-definition function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">handle</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">self</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> _</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">-></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">IronResult</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&lt;</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">></span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">{</span><span class="token plain"></span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)"
<p>We attempt to build a struct, and give its <code>handle</code> method off to the router
so the router knows what to do.</p>
<p>You guessed it, more errors:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> error: attempted to take value of method `handle` on type `EchoHandler`</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Now, the Rust compiler is actually a really nice fellow, and offers us help:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> help: maybe a `()` to call it is missing? If not, try an anonymous function</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>We definitely don't want to call that function, so maybe try an anonymous
function as it recommends?</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain">router</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">get</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"/"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token closure-params closure-punctuation punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">|</span><span class="token closure-params">req</span><span class="token closure-params punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token closure-params"> </span><span class="token closure-params operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token closure-params keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token closure-params"> </span><span class="token closure-params class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token closure-params closure-punctuation punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">|</span><span class="token plain"> echo</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">handle</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"index"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">;</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Another error:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> error[E0373]: closure may outlive the current function, but it borrows `echo`, which is owned by the current function</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Another helpful message:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> help: to force the closure to take ownership of `echo` (and any other referenced variables), use the `move` keyword</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>We're getting closer though! Let's implement this change:</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain">router</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">get</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"/"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">move</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token closure-params closure-punctuation punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">|</span><span class="token closure-params">req</span><span class="token closure-params punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">:</span><span class="token closure-params"> </span><span class="token closure-params operator" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">&</span><span class="token closure-params keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">mut</span><span class="token closure-params"> </span><span class="token closure-params class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Request</span><span class="token closure-params closure-punctuation punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">|</span><span class="token plain"> echo</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">handle</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token plain">req</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token string" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">"index"</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">;</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>And here's where things get strange:</p>
<div class="codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-text codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> error[E0507]: cannot move out of borrowed content</span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> --> src/main.rs:18:40</span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> |</span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> 18 | Ok(Response::with((status::Ok, self.message)))</span><br></span><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token plain"> | ^^^^ cannot move out of borrowed content</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Now, this took me another couple hours to figure out. I'm going to explain it,
but <strong>keep this in mind: Rust only allows one reference at a time</strong> (exceptions
apply of course).</p>
<p>When we attempt to use <code>self.message</code> as it has been created in the earlier
<code>struct</code>, we essentially are trying to give it away to another piece of code.
Rust's semantics then state that <em>we may no longer access it</em> unless it is
returned to us (which <code>iron</code>'s code does not do). There are two ways to fix
this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Only give away references (i.e. <code>&self.message</code> instead of <code>self.message</code>)
instead of transferring ownership</li>
<li>Make a copy of the underlying value which will be safe to give away</li>
</ol>
<p>I didn't know these were the two options originally, so I hope this helps the
audience out. Because <code>iron</code> won't accept a reference, we are forced into the
second option: making a copy. To do so, we just need to change the function
to look like this:</p>
<div class="language-rust codeBlockContainer_Ckt0 theme-code-block" style="--prism-background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);--prism-color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><div class=codeBlockContent_biex><pre tabindex=0 class="prism-code language-rust codeBlock_bY9V thin-scrollbar" style="background-color:hsl(230, 1%, 98%);color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><code class=codeBlockLines_e6Vv><span class=token-line style="color:hsl(230, 8%, 24%)"><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Response</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">with</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token namespace">status</span><span class="token namespace punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">::</span><span class="token class-name" style="color:hsl(35, 99%, 36%)">Ok</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">,</span><span class="token plain"> </span><span class="token keyword" style="color:hsl(301, 63%, 40%)">self</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token plain">message</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">.</span><span class="token function" style="color:hsl(221, 87%, 60%)">clone</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">(</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><span class="token punctuation" style="color:hsl(119, 34%, 47%)">)</span><br></span></code></pre><div class=buttonGroup__atx><button type=button aria-label="Copy code to clipboard" title=Copy class=clean-btn><span class=copyButtonIcons_eSgA aria-hidden=true><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonIcon_y97N><path fill=currentColor d="M19,21H8V7H19M19,5H8A2,2 0 0,0 6,7V21A2,2 0 0,0 8,23H19A2,2 0 0,0 21,21V7A2,2 0 0,0 19,5M16,1H4A2,2 0 0,0 2,3V17H4V3H16V1Z"/></svg><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" class=copyButtonSuccessIcon_LjdS><path fill=currentColor d=M21,7L9,19L3.5,13.5L4.91,12.09L9,16.17L19.59,5.59L21,7Z /></svg></span></button></div></div></div>
<p>Not so bad, huh? My only complaint is that it took so long to figure out exactly
what was going on.</p>
<p>And now we have a small server that we can configure dynamically. At long last.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Final sidenote: You can actually do this without anonymous functions. Just
change the router line to:
<code>router.get("/", echo, "index");</code></p>
<p>Rust's type system seems to figure out that we want to use the <code>handle()</code> method.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 class="anchor anchorWithStickyNavbar_LWe7" id=conclusion>Conclusion<a href=#conclusion class=hash-link aria-label="Direct link to Conclusion" title="Direct link to Conclusion">​</a></h2>
<p>After a good long days' work, we now have the routing functionality set up on
our application. We should be able to scale this pretty well in the future:
the RSS content we need to deliver in the future can be treated as a string, so
the building blocks are in place.</p>
<p>There are two important things I learned starting with Rust today:</p>
<ol>
<li>Rust is a new language, and while the code is high-quality, the mindshare is coming.</li>
<li>I'm a terrible programmer.</li>
</ol>
<p>Number 1 is pretty obvious and not surprising to anyone. Number two caught me
off guard. I've gotten used to having either a garbage collector (Java, Python,
etc.) or playing a little fast and loose with scoping rules (C, C++). You don't
have to worry about object lifetime there. With Rust, it's forcing me to fully
understand and use well the memory in my applications. In the final mistake I
fixed (using <code>.clone()</code>) I would have been fine in C++ to just give away that
reference and never use it again. I wouldn't have run into a "use-after-free"
error, but I would have potentially been leaking memory. Rust forced me to be
incredibly precise about how I use it.</p>
<p>All said I'm excited for using Rust more. I think it's super cool, it's just
going to take me a lot longer to do this than I originally thought.</div></article><nav class="pagination-nav docusaurus-mt-lg" aria-label="Blog post page navigation"><a class="pagination-nav__link pagination-nav__link--prev" href=/2016/06/event-studies-and-earnings-releases><div class=pagination-nav__sublabel>Older post</div><div class=pagination-nav__label>Event studies and earnings releases</div></a><a class="pagination-nav__link pagination-nav__link--next" href=/2016/11/pca-audio-compression><div class=pagination-nav__sublabel>Newer post</div><div class=pagination-nav__label>PCA audio compression</div></a></nav></main><div class="col col--2"><div class="tableOfContents_bqdL thin-scrollbar"><ul class="table-of-contents table-of-contents__left-border"><li><a href=#the-setup class="table-of-contents__link toc-highlight">The Setup</a><li><a href=#issue-1-strings class="table-of-contents__link toc-highlight">Issue 1: Strings</a><li><a href=#issue-2-fighting-with-the-borrow-checker class="table-of-contents__link toc-highlight">Issue 2: Fighting with the borrow checker</a><li><a href=#conclusion class="table-of-contents__link toc-highlight">Conclusion</a></ul></div></div></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class="container container-fluid"><div class="footer__bottom text--center"><div class=footer__copyright>Copyright © 2024 Bradlee Speice</div></div></div></footer></div>
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