@Andrey_Dmitriev wrote:
I simply generated Rust bindings from the CVI headers using bindgen, and now I’m using Rust as the main programming language. CVI’s documentation covers building a project with an external compiler, but nothing says that the compiler has to be C ultimately — the Rust works just as well. All calls from Rust into CVI functions are unsafe, of course, because they go through FFI, the parameters the same. AI can generate Rust code as long as you tell it that you already have CVI bindings available. I’m using GitHub Copilot for this, and it works well. To edit the *.uir panel files obviously I still use CVI, which I keep open side‑by‑side with JetBrains RustRover, my IDE. Bindgen runs on every build to ensure the control IDs are always up to date. The callbacks are handled through the .obj file using CVI’s external‑compiler support, and everything is linked together with the CVI libraries — and it works.
I don't know anything about Rust, so I can't judge how efficient it is to call C functions via bindings.
In any case, I suspect you'll run into hidden compatibility issues sooner or later. Of course, I hope that doesn't happen, but in my experience, such combinations are rarely trouble-free.
It certainly isn't the right choice for someone maintaining very large, existing projects—like mine—where the standard IDE is no longer viable because it's too limited, throws "out of memory" errors, disables code browsing, and crashes after a while, among other issues.
The VS Code solution, at least for me, is really just about using an IDE that is far more advanced when it comes to text editing.
Regardless, I'm glad there are people out there fighting the good fight and finding alternative paths 😀
Carlo A.
Megaris srl
Italy
