The Leafslug.com

And Back to Rust, Again!

So, I re-re-wrote my blog using Rust. And bought a new domain. And commissioned a Leafslug illustration.

Why

I really loved Elixir. It was a great experience learning it. I really like the model of LiveView. However, Elixir’s more prominent figures and companies jumped into the latest hype. After the last one. After the one before that. All during half a year that I experienced it.

It doesn’t spark joy in me anymore.

Day-by-day, it feels less and less like a language that I like to use, a community I want to be a part of, and more and more like a proprietary language with a closed enterprise ecosystem. That’s not the vibe I like to code with. 1

Don’t get me wrong. I think BEAM is bee’s knees. And I think the syntax of Elixir is amazing. I just don’t enjoy being in that community, working with libraries made for it, or consuming the podcasts that are so fascinated by the latest LLM crap.

So, since I was thinking about expanding the backend I wrote for my blog, I decided just to take the pill and re-rewrite2 it again in Rust.

The Rewrite

So, it is not just a rewrite. The new rewrite has some particularly interesting characteristics.

  1. (Almost) Everything is event-sourced. 3
  2. The persistence relies on a single-table SQLite database file.
  3. I wrote a client for it that makes sending posts and editing them much easier.
  4. The markup is the lovely Djot, instead of Markdown.
  5. A new, lovely domain! TheLeafslug.com
  6. Simple CSS, No Tailwind. A more sematic HTML.

FAQ

Isn’t Rust an over-kill?

I’m not learning Python just to answer your question.

Isn’t event-sourcing an over-kill?

Not unless you want snapshoting, multi-tenancy, and state resolution.

Aren’t there better databases for storing events?

Yes, but they are actually over-kill.

Why changing the domain?

  1. First, no one complimented the clever name of my last domain.
  2. That domain is being held hostage by another registrar; that doesn’t let me move it elsewhere.
  3. Leafslugs spark joy in me.

Why not…?

Ok, I’m done with your endless questions now.

  1. A big red-letters on a yellow background sign that screams: SARCASM↩︎

  2. The first version of this blog was actually written in Rust.↩︎

  3. Are you interested in a post with an architectural breakdown? If you are, please send me a quick email at me@prma.dev.↩︎