REVIS: An Error Visualization Tool for Rust

TL;DR

REVIS is a Visual Studio Code extension designed to visualize lifetime-related Rust compiler errors, aiming to assist developers, especially learners, in understanding and fixing complex ownership and lifetime issues more effectively.

Contribution

The paper introduces REVIS, a novel visualization tool for Rust errors, including its design, implementation, and preliminary evaluation for educational use.

Findings

Data collected on error prevalence and fix time.

Preliminary evidence suggests potential benefits for learners.

Further evaluation needed due to small participant number.

Abstract

Rust is a programming language that uses a concept of ownership to guarantee memory safety without the use of a garbage collector. However, some error messages related to ownership can be difficult to understand and fix, particularly those that depend on value lifetimes. To help developers fix lifetime-related errors, we developed REVIS, a VSCode extension that visualizes lifetime-related Rust compiler errors. We describe the design and implementation of the VSCode extension, along with a preliminary evaluation of its efficacy for student learners of Rust. Although the number of participants was too low to enable evaluation of the efficacy of REVIS, we gathered data regarding the prevalence and time to fix the compiler errors that the participants encountered.