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Anyone know what would be required to get Rust running on the ESP32 boards? I picked up a couple for $6 each (Wemos LoLin32), and it's an impressive board for t

Anyone know what would be required to get Rust running on the ESP32 boards? I picked up a couple for $6 each (Wemos LoLin32), and it's an impressive board for the price. Wifi and bluetooth built in. I assume it's non-trivial or someone would have done it already, but I'm curious if it might happen eventually. Been poking at C which is already a bit out of my wheelhouse, but it'd be a good excuse to check out Rust too if I could.

tentaTherapist 9y ago
There isn't any LLVM support yet, and it doesn't look like anyone's working on it.
- mastax 9y ago
  I heard that Expressif was working on an LLVM port, but we'll see...
  - MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
    That has died. Every now and then I'm thinking this might be a fun project, but... well.
    - Eridrus 9y ago
      You could try and compile with the resurrected LLVM c backend, llvm-cbe, and then compile that C code with existing tools. Good luck debugging that mess if you ever need that, but Rust has compile time safety, right? ;)
peller 9y ago
I don't know about Rust, but MicroPython runs quite well on the ESP8266/ESP32 boards. Might be worth investigating if you're looking for something a bit more accessible than C. https://github.com/micropython/micropython-esp32 https://github.com/micropython/micropython-esp32
- MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
  Or this one for the Wrover: https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_ESP32_psRAM_LoBo https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_ESP32_psRAM_LoBo
- bschwindHN 9y ago
  MicroPython kind of misses the point in this case though. The desire for Rust is for something not only safer and higher level but also fast and low on memory usage. Rust on the esp32 with Rusty bindings to esp-idf would be fantastic.
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  I'm sure I'd be more productive in MicroPython, but I'm using it more as a fun excuse to pick up a lower level language than anything else.
rz2k 9y ago
I agree that the ESP32 would be a really cool way to get some practical experience with Rust. If you want to get started more easily take a look at Neil Kolban's book on the ESP32.[1] Other environments besides C include C simplified with the Arduino IDE, Python, Lua, and JavaScript. [1] https://leanpub.com/kolban-ESP32 https://leanpub.com/kolban-ESP32
muizelaar 9y ago
There's been some experimentation with using https://github.com/thepowersgang/mrustc https://github.com/thepowersgang/mrustc to target the ESP8266: https://github.com/emosenkis/arduino-esp-rs https://github.com/emosenkis/arduino-esp-rs The same would work for the ESP32.
coupdejarnac 9y ago
If you're looking to make a commercial application with the ESP32 or ESP8266, I'd say bit the bullet and learn C. The Espressif SDKs are pretty decent. I'm making a commercial product with the ESP8266 with the FreeRTOS SDK, and it's been relatively painless so far.
- brettanomyces 9y ago
  I've recently bit the bullet started porting my CPP Arduino code to C to run on ESP32's and take advantage of some of the more advanced features, watchdogs and freeRTOS tasks. I would much prefer to write the code in Rust but I'm sure even if it were possible and I got it all working eventually some other chip will be the new hotness and using C ensures I need to do the least amount of work to get it working on that chip
  - d21d3q 9y ago
    Did you take a look on chibios?
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Given that ESP32 is already a bit better than an Amstrad PCW 1512, it would be nice to have other options as well. MS-DOS had lots of programming language options.

tentaTherapist 9y ago

There isn't any LLVM support yet, and it doesn't look like anyone's working on it.

mastax 9y ago
I heard that Expressif was working on an LLVM port, but we'll see...
- MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
  That has died. Every now and then I'm thinking this might be a fun project, but... well.
  - Eridrus 9y ago
    You could try and compile with the resurrected LLVM c backend, llvm-cbe, and then compile that C code with existing tools. Good luck debugging that mess if you ever need that, but Rust has compile time safety, right? ;)

peller 9y ago

I don't know about Rust, but MicroPython runs quite well on the ESP8266/ESP32 boards. Might be worth investigating if you're looking for something a bit more accessible than C. https://github.com/micropython/micropython-esp32 https://github.com/micropython/micropython-esp32

MrBuddyCasino 9y ago
Or this one for the Wrover: https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_ESP32_psRAM_LoBo https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_ESP32_psRAM_LoBo
bschwindHN 9y ago
MicroPython kind of misses the point in this case though. The desire for Rust is for something not only safer and higher level but also fast and low on memory usage. Rust on the esp32 with Rusty bindings to esp-idf would be fantastic.
wlesieutre 9y ago
I'm sure I'd be more productive in MicroPython, but I'm using it more as a fun excuse to pick up a lower level language than anything else.

rz2k 9y ago

I agree that the ESP32 would be a really cool way to get some practical experience with Rust. If you want to get started more easily take a look at Neil Kolban's book on the ESP32.[1] Other environments besides C include C simplified with the Arduino IDE, Python, Lua, and JavaScript. [1] https://leanpub.com/kolban-ESP32 https://leanpub.com/kolban-ESP32

muizelaar 9y ago

There's been some experimentation with using https://github.com/thepowersgang/mrustc https://github.com/thepowersgang/mrustc to target the ESP8266: https://github.com/emosenkis/arduino-esp-rs https://github.com/emosenkis/arduino-esp-rs The same would work for the ESP32.

coupdejarnac 9y ago

If you're looking to make a commercial application with the ESP32 or ESP8266, I'd say bit the bullet and learn C. The Espressif SDKs are pretty decent. I'm making a commercial product with the ESP8266 with the FreeRTOS SDK, and it's been relatively painless so far.

brettanomyces 9y ago
I've recently bit the bullet started porting my CPP Arduino code to C to run on ESP32's and take advantage of some of the more advanced features, watchdogs and freeRTOS tasks. I would much prefer to write the code in Rust but I'm sure even if it were possible and I got it all working eventually some other chip will be the new hotness and using C ensures I need to do the least amount of work to get it working on that chip
- d21d3q 9y ago
  Did you take a look on chibios?
pjmlp 9y ago
Given that ESP32 is already a bit better than an Amstrad PCW 1512, it would be nice to have other options as well. MS-DOS had lots of programming language options.