So, I’m working on this desktop app with Tauri, and lately, I’ve been stuck on this question: do I really need to get into Tokio? I mean, Tauri uses it, so yeah, probably. Plus, I came across this blog about separating threads in Tokio, and now I can’t stop thinking about how much I actually need to know to not screw things up later.
Why Tokio?
Okay, so Tokio is all about async tasks, which my app will have plenty of. Stuff like:
- Communicating over LAN
- File system operations
- Maybe even USB communication later? (Still just an idea.)
- Oh, and handling desktop events---this will probably need a dedicated thread.
Basically, it’s a lot. And I can’t have the app freezing or lagging just because something is waiting on I/O. Tokio feels like the obvious solution… but then again, is it?
The Docs Dive
I’ve started poking around in the docs and community posts, and so far, it’s not too bad. The whole tokio::spawn thing for concurrent tasks is pretty cool, though I’m still wrapping my head around when and how to actually use it.
But here’s a thing I didn’t know: Tokio isn’t great for CPU-heavy tasks. For that, there’s tokio::task::spawn_blocking. It’s supposed to offload the heavy stuff so it doesn’t clog up the main thread. Makes sense… I think?
Also, shoutout to Rust’s documentation---it’s genuinely so helpful. Like, I don’t feel totally lost, which is rare for me when learning new frameworks.
Async vs Blocking
This part is tripping me up a bit. My app will probably need both async and blocking operations, but figuring out where to draw the line feels tricky.
- Async is perfect for I/O, so that’s clear.
- Blocking… maybe for the heavier calculations? I don’t know yet.
It feels like I’m trying to piece together a puzzle with half the pieces missing, but hey, that’s kind of fun in its own way. Or maybe I’m just saying that to stay sane.
Random Thoughts from the Community
Oh, and I’ve been reading what others say about Tokio. The consensus? Great for async. But if your app is more about crunching numbers or other CPU-heavy stuff, maybe look into Crossbeam or Rayon instead.
I’m not even sure how much CPU-bound work my app will need yet, but it’s good to know these options exist.
Anyway, I don’t have it all figured out yet, Let’s see where this goes.
OK, that’s it!