consider switch to rust on backend

[2bndy5]

Historically, I've tried using various libraries to generate images. But SVG rendering support has been the biggest hurtle in this regard.

Currently, I'm using Qt6 (PySide6) on the backend since it offers SVG rendering support (among other essential features like font rendering). However, Qt doesn't not execute well in headless Linux environments (see #13). Using a rust interface on the backend instead should mitigate #13 sufficiently.

I think it is worth re-writing the backend for image generation using python bindings to a rust interface (using PyO3). Useful rust libs/crates include:

• resvg (SVG rendering lib)
• cosmic-text (ttf rendering)
• image-rs (generic non-rasterized image rendering/manipulation)
• tera (implementation of a template engine similar to Jinja2 or Django)

[2bndy5]

Unfortunately, the state of parsing YAML in rust is in a state of flux at the moment.

Important

See also

• rust advisory about unmaintained yaml-rust lib
• yaml-rust2 is a drop-in replacement for yaml-rust lib
• saphyr is a yaml-rust2 derivative with plans to improve the API at the cost of breaking yaml-rust's API. (see Status of this crate Ethiraric/yaml-rust2#26 for rationale)

Also, serializing a YAML document into rust data structs had been driven with serde-yaml which is no longer maintained (actually deprecated) without any candidates for replacement. A new crate called serde-saphyr looks to be a promising alternative (does not support tagged enums in YAML syntax).