RustViz Web - Learning Rust Ownership & Borrowing

Welcome! This interactive tool visualizes Rust's ownership, borrowing, and copying concepts as animated SVG timelines.

Topics Covered

1. Variables & Mutability – Understand let (immutable) vs let mut (mutable)
2. Copy – Learn which types copy instead of move (scalar types like integers)
3. Ownership – See how values are moved between variables and functions
4. Borrowing – Explore immutable references (&T) and mutable references (&mut T)

How to Use These Examples

1. Select a topic from the left sidebar (organized from basics to advanced)
2. Read the Rust source in the diagram on each page (the same code appears inside the visualization)
3. Hover over the timeline to understand:
   • Dots – Events (variable declarations, moves, borrows)
   • Vertical lines – Variable lifetimes
   • Arrows – Ownership transfers and references

Try the Playground

Use the Playground (last item in the sidebar) to write Rust beside a live ownership & timeline diagram. Experiment with different patterns to build intuition!

Learning Path

Start from the top of the sidebar and work your way down:

• Begin with Immutable Variables and Mutable Variables
• Then explore Stack-Only Data: Copy to understand what makes types copyable
• Move on to Ownership examples (moves and functions)
• Finally, study References and Borrowing

Project forked from rustviz/rustviz