IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Async Rust never left the MVP state

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Key take‑aways

  • Overly sensational title

    "Overly dramatic title for the content, though." – Animats

  • Significant async overhead, especially in constrained environments

    "He's optimizing for embedded no‑std situation. These things do matter in constrained environments." – algesten

  • Function‑coloring and ecosystem lock‑in (Tokio dominance)

    "It seems crazy to me how much the whole ecosystem depends on tokio." – ignoreusernames

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

Async State Machine Optimizer

Summary

  • Tool that rewrites Rust async functions to collapse duplicate state variants and eliminate panic/returned/unresumed vectors, shrinking binaries and cutting runtime overhead.
  • Provides automatic micro‑optimizations for trivial async cases that the compiler currently leaves untouched.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Rust developers targeting embedded or high‑performance async workloads who care about binary size and micro‑optimizations
Core Feature Compile‑time transformation of async state machines to hoist matches and drop unused variants, generating smaller, faster futures
Tech Stack Rust proc‑macro + cranelift/LLVM, cfg(target_arch) for no_std, CI integration
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN commenters repeatedly complained about “no effort on trivial cases” and “micro‑optimizations matter for embedded”; this tool directly addresses those pain points.
  • Potential for integration into CI pipelines or as a standalone optimizer plugin, sparking discussion on compiler extensions.

Dual‑Use Async Wrapper (maybe‑async)

Summary- Macro library that lets a function be declared async‑agnostic, automatically generating both sync and async implementations to avoid function‑coloring duplication.

  • Eliminates the need for separate sync/async overloads, simplifying library code that must work in both contexts.

Details| Key | Value |

|-----|-------| | Target Audience | Library authors and API designers who need to support both synchronous and asynchronous callers without duplicating code | | Core Feature | Attribute‑driven generation of dual implementations (sync vs await) with compile‑time checks and optional executor selection | | Tech Stack | Rust proc‑macro (syn/quote), optional code‑gen via proc‑macros, compatible with Tokio, async‑std, and no_std | | Difficulty | Medium | | Monetization | Revenue-ready: $19/mo per user |

Notes

  • Directly solves the “function coloring” frustration voiced by several commenters who want a way to write code that works in sync and async worlds without maintaining two versions.
  • Could be packaged as a commercial crate for enterprises, generating discussion around monetization of language tooling.

Embedded Async Binary Optimizer (EABytes)

Summary

  • CLI/SaaS service that analyzes compiled Rust async binaries for embedded targets, identifying redundant panic/returned/unresumed state vectors and recommending compiler flags to collapse them.
  • Provides actionable size‑reduction reports, helping teams meet tight memory budgets.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Embedded Rust developers working under strict memory constraints (no_std, MCU, IoT)
Core Feature Automated detection of unnecessary async state variants and optimization suggestions (e.g., -C panic-strategy=abort, custom lowering) with optional auto‑patch generation
Tech Stack Rust analysis scripts, Capstone disassembly, LLVM‑MORC, Dockerized API, optional VS Code extension
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: $99/mo per team

Notes

  • Addresses the embedded‑specific concern raised about “panic vectors not worth optimization” and the need for compiler‑level savings, which resonated with commenters focused on size.
  • Could be offered as a hosted service with a free tier for hobbyists, encouraging community discussion and potential collaboration.

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