Speed up bulk processes by rewriting with Rust

[tronicboy1]

Hi!

Thank you all for your contributions.

Suggestion

Rewrite some core operations in Rust to improve speed of the WP CLI.

Benefits

• Improved speed from use of machine code
• Improved stability in memory intensive operations

Problems

• Lack of contributors with knowledge in Rust?
• Difficulties integrating with current code base?

First steps

• Advise on what areas of WP CLI need performance improvements
• Devise benchmark tests to see if changes actually improve speed

[danielbachhuber]

Thanks for the suggestion, @tronicboy1 !

Given WP-CLI interacts directly with WordPress and WordPress requires PHP, I think we're unlikely to rewrite any parts of WP-CLI to Rust in the near future.

With that being said, you might be interested in one such take at a faster implementation on one of WP-CLI's core processes: https://github.com/Automattic/vip-search-replace

If you'd like to try something similar, we'd love to hear about any progress you make.

[tronicboy1]

@danielbachhuber
Hi Daniel, thanks for the response!

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I didn't know we also used node in the CLI!