[Rd] Proposal: Integrating Rust Toolchain into Rtools for Rust-Based R Package Development

[Sun Wenjie]

Dear R-devel community,

I'm exploring (experimentally) the integration of the Rust toolchain into 
Rtools, to enable smoother development and shipping of Rust-based R packages 
on Windows.

I've written a detailed blog post documenting the process, technical rationale
and what’s next:
https://medium.com/@sunwjie/integrating-the-rust-toolchain-into-rtools-e4c7df40cb82.

Currently, Rust is not included in Rtools, and setting it up alongside R on
Windows can be confusing for some users, especially those unfamiliar with
computers. However, both Rust (via the -gnu toolchain) and
Rtools share the same MinGW-based toolchain, making integration technically
feasible.

What I’ve done so far
- Built a custom Rtools45 installer with Rust 1.85.0 integrated alongside GCC
  and other tools.
- Successfully tested Rust-based R packages like {string2path} using the custom
  Rtools.

I'd love to contribute this work upstream and collaborate with Rtools
maintainers to make Rust a supported part of the official Rtools release. Are
there existing plans or blockers around this?

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your thoughts! 

Best regards,
Wenjie

—— 
https://www.sun-wenjie.site