A LTC timecode generator webapp that shows the currently running LTC time, and has a digital clapper funtion. Primarily vibecoded to be good enough for practical application.

The webapp interface:

Compiling the Rust GUI

Setup:

cargo install cargo-zigbuild

Compilation:

cargo zigbuild --release

Compiling the 32bit version

docker build --platform linux/386 -t ltc-debian11-builder -f Dockerfile.gui-build .
docker run --rm \
       -v "$(pwd)":/app \
       -v "$(pwd)/.cargo_cache:/usr/local/cargo/registry" \
       -w /app/ltc-gui \
       ltc-debian11-builder \
       cargo zigbuild --target i686-unknown-linux-gnu.2.31 --release

Running the Rust GUI

cd ltc-gui
cargo run                    # Debug
cargo run --release          # Release (12MB stripped)
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 cargo run  # Force software rendering for GPU-less testing

Packaging & Deploying the Webapp as Standalone

Packaging your React/Vite application into a native desktop app using Tauri is a highly efficient choice. Tauri utilizes the system’s native webview (WebKit on Linux/macOS, WebView2 on Windows) combined with a robust Rust backend. This keeps the final binary size extremely small (around 5–10 MB) and uses very little memory compared to Electron. Here is a step-by-step guide tailored to your specific React project to turn it into a standalone desktop application.

Install Rust & System Prerequisites

Before you begin, your local development machine needs the Rust compiler and system webview packages installed.

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file libssl-dev libgtk-3-dev
# For 32 bit deployment
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev:armhf # ARMv7
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev:i386 # i686

macOS:

Install Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

Windows:

Download and run the Rustup installer and install the C++ build tools via Visual Studio Build Tools.

Once prerequisites are met, install Rust:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Install v2 tauri cli

cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2.0.0" --locked

Test and Run Locally in Desktop Mode

You can now run your application in a local native desktop window. Tauri will start Vite in the background, spin up the Rust core, and display your React interface inside the native webview:

npx tauri dev

Build the Production Executable

When you are ready to package your application into a production-ready, standalone binary, run:

npm run build
cd src-tauri
cargo tauri build
# npx tauri build

This command will:

• Run npm run build to compile your TypeScript/React code into optimized HTML, JS, and CSS inside /dist.
• Compile the Rust backend from source.
• Package everything into a standalone executable (e.g., .deb / .AppImage on Linux, .app / .dmg on macOS, .msi on Windows) inside src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

To build 32bit versions, make sure you have docker installed on you system, then:

./build-32bit.sh

Version Bumping

npm version patch    # 0.1.0 → 0.1.1, syncs all files, creates git tag v0.1.1
npm version minor    # 0.1.0 → 0.2.0, syncs all files, creates git tag v0.2.0
npm version major    # 0.1.0 → 1.0.0, syncs all files, creates git tag v1.0.0

npm run version:sync                 # manual re-sync without bumping

After npm version, run npm install and cargo build in each crate to update lock files.

Installing Docker

Ubuntu

sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin  

Allow non root (i.e. you) users to run docker:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker