The Present State of the Frontend Toolchain, Seen Through Astro and Rust
Rust is increasingly becoming the default choice in frontend toolchains, with tools like Oxc, Lightning CSS, and Rolldown leading the way. Astro, too, has been moving toward adopting Rust internally, starting with compiler-rs.
But when you turn to Markdown/MDX processing, you run into problems that "just switch to Rust and it'll be faster" doesn't solve. Questions arise around how to connect with the existing JavaScript ecosystem — remark/rehype compatibility, syntax highlighting, Vite plugins, interop with Node.js, and distribution of native binaries.
I want to think through the current state of the frontend toolchain from the vantage point of Astro and Rust.
What I plan to cover:
- The trend toward Rust adoption in Astro
- The difficulties of porting Markdown/MDX to Rust
- The boundary with the JavaScript ecosystem, as seen through napi-rs, syntax highlighting, and Vite plugins
- The reality of implementing, proposing, and overhauling existing mechanisms within OSS
As for why I'm applying: Vue Fes was the catalyst that led to launching the Astro Japan Community, and through interactions with the Astro core team at Vue Amsterdam, I had the experience of seeing my own implementation connect into a larger context. This is a story only I, as an Astro committer, can tell — one I haven't shared until now.
▼ Astro roadmap discussion
https://github.com/withastro/roadmap/discussions/1195
▼ Spike implementation of xmdx
Most of the people who've starred it are actually Astro core members.
https://github.com/jp-knj/xmdx
jp-knj
The Present State of the Frontend Toolchain, Seen Through Astro and Rust
Rust is increasingly becoming the default choice in frontend toolchains, with tools like Oxc, Lightning CSS, and Rolldown leading the way. Astro, too, has been moving toward adopting Rust internally, starting with compiler-rs.
But when you turn to Markdown/MDX processing, you run into problems that "just switch to Rust and it'll be faster" doesn't solve. Questions arise around how to connect with the existing JavaScript ecosystem — remark/rehype compatibility, syntax highlighting, Vite plugins, interop with Node.js, and distribution of native binaries.
I want to think through the current state of the frontend toolchain from the vantage point of Astro and Rust.
What I plan to cover:
- The trend toward Rust adoption in Astro
- The difficulties of porting Markdown/MDX to Rust
- The boundary with the JavaScript ecosystem, as seen through napi-rs, syntax highlighting, and Vite plugins
- The reality of implementing, proposing, and overhauling existing mechanisms within OSS
As for why I'm applying: Vue Fes was the catalyst that led to launching the Astro Japan Community, and through interactions with the Astro core team at Vue Amsterdam, I had the experience of seeing my own implementation connect into a larger context. This is a story only I, as an Astro committer, can tell — one I haven't shared until now.
▼ Astro roadmap discussion
https://github.com/withastro/roadmap/discussions/1195
▼ Spike implementation of xmdx
Most of the people who've starred it are actually Astro core members.
https://github.com/jp-knj/xmdx