Happy Monday Tuesday, and welcome to the first development update for my
recipe manager, tentatively named Sous. There are a few things to cover,
including the chosen development environment, the beginnings of the core
library, and a basic first client.
Development Environment Link to heading
To step a little out of my comfort zone, I’ve chosen to build Sous using Rust. I would have far more experience with C/C++, C#, or Python, but Rust makes an interesting value proposition1 and I’ve been meaning to give it a try for a larger project for a while.
Core Library Link to heading
Currently the core of Sous consists of a single naive Recipe data structure:
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug)]
struct Recipe {
name: String,
steps: Vec<String>,
ingredients: Vec<String>,
}
This struct represents a recipe similarly to how one would using a standard text editor or note application, containing only a name and two lists of strings for the ingredients/method. This affords the user a decent amount of flexibility in how to express recipes, but encodes very little information readily available to the application.
The serde and
serde_yaml crates allow recipes to
be easily stored/loaded in YAML format, though a more maintainable solution
will likely be required as the library grows.2
Sous CLI Link to heading
To demonstrate this early functionality I’ve created a basic first CLI for Sous
that can ingest a YAML-formatted recipe file and output a simple Markdown
representation either to standard output or a file. It makes use of the
excellent clap crate to implement command
line arguments with a simple struct:
#[derive(Parser, Debug)]
#[command()]
struct Args {
/// YAML-formatted recipe to convert
#[arg()]
file: PathBuf,
/// Output file
#[arg(short, long)]
output: Option<PathBuf>,
}
As an example, sous tenderloin.yml -o tenderloin.md with this YAML:
---
name: Pork Tenderloin
ingredients:
- 1 tenderloin
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil
steps:
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Pat tenderloin dry with a paper towel.
- Cover tenderloin with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Coat the bottom of an oven-safe pan with olive oil and put over medium-high heat until shimmering.
- Sear the tenderloin, turning occasionally, for about 8 minutes or until well browned.
- Remove pan from heat and place in oven for 20 minutes or until an internal temperature of 145°F is reached.
- Remove from oven and loosely tent with foil, allowing to rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
outputs the following Markdown:
# Pork Tenderloin
## Ingredients
* 1 tenderloin
* 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
* Salt
* Pepper
* Olive oil
## Method
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Pat tenderloin dry with a paper towel.
3. Cover tenderloin with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
4. Coat the bottom of an oven-safe pan with olive oil and put over medium-high heat until shimmering.
5. Sear the tenderloin, turning occasionally, for about 8 minutes or until well browned.
6. Remove pan from heat and place in oven for 20 minutes or until an internal temperature of 145°F is reached.
7. Remove from oven and loosely tent with foil, allowing to rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
Not the most exciting conversion, but it works!