Install for Rust

Use Rust 1.88+, Windows 10/11 x64, Visual Studio C++ Build Tools and the Windows SDK. Desktop operations need an interactive session with Explorer. No Python installation or wheel is needed.

Create an application and add the library crates from crates.io:

cargo new desktop-layout
cd desktop-layout
cargo add rdi-core
cargo add rdi-platform-windows

rdi-core contains the controller and platform-independent animation types. rdi-platform-windows provides the Windows backend and HLSL compiler. Use compatible versions of the two crates and commit your application’s Cargo lockfile. This proof of concept does not promise a stable API between releases.

For a cross-platform application, make the Windows dependency target-specific and gate its use with cfg(windows). The core can be used independently for curve evaluation/testing; a non-Windows stub is not a working desktop backend.

Install the Interactive Demo

The rusty-desktop-icons package contains demo binaries, not a facade library:

cargo install rusty-desktop-icons --bin animate_timeline
animate_timeline --dry-run

The dry run only reports a plan. Running without it opens a live desktop animation; review Demo App: Timeline Editor first.

Continue with the read-only quickstart. Library development and documentation builds are covered in contributing.