performance of rust vs js

[schoko11]

Hi,

i am thinking about making an app especially for controlling gear with midi.

The idea is to use a db for storing needed data(there is an official plugin) and webmidi.js(https://webmidijs.org/) for sending sysex to the hardware device(and receive data, adjust rotary encoders, buttons etc.), on the web side i tend to use vanilla js/css.

1.) can i use https://github.com/Boddlnagg/midir in tauri's backend ? Would this bring any performance gain compared to using js(webmidi)?

2.) the gui will have several elements, for which i tend to use classes and attribute names in the DOM. Showing and hiding them(labeling and values etc) should also be done with vanilla js / css. big changes (max ~30 gui elements) occurs while loading a new sound. Maybe in the future more and complex GUI -> i am not sure when there is a need of thinking about SSR, react, etc.

Of course it should be a fast UI
(ideally crossplatform, ideally android and linux)

Any suggestion / help / opinions highly appreciated, i have never done amy rust code.

thanks!

[CaseSens]

I don't know the specifications of midir or webmidi, but here's what I can say.

Rust, of course, is gonna be much faster than JavaScript when looked at in a vacuum. However, it's important to note that there are nuances to this.

The communication between Rust and Javascript in Tauri is done through an async function called invoke. Calling this function has some overhead to it, so it's important to keep in mind the architecture of your app.

For example, imagine you have a Rust backend function, send_midi_signal, that returns data or a success/failure response to update the frontend. If this function is called frequently—say, every time a user rotates a knob, potentially hundreds of times per second—the invoke call's overhead could significantly hinder your app's performance.

Conversely, if this Rust function handles an expensive but rarely called operation, such as an initial setup or a one-off data processing task, then leveraging Rust will almost certainly yield better performance.

Summary

This is too broad of a question to answer accurately. The optimal choice depends heavily on factors like:

• What is the architecture of your app?
• Was midir written to be performant?
• Are you able to write good Rust code to actually achieve better performance?

The real answer is, it depends. While a difference in efficiency between Rust and JavaScript exists, it's often negligible unless you're developing something that demands every nanosecond of performance (think fintech or high-frequency data analytics). For most applications, I'd suggest focusing on what makes development easier and more efficient for you. If you're looking to learn Rust, then this could be a good opportunity! You'll know what works best for your project.