i feel like im doing things too difficult than they should be

[plain hornet]

new to rust and having difficulties with all this borrowing stuff, i would appreciate if you guys could explain to me how i can simplify this short script. especially lines 47 and 63 seem kinda weird to me:
https://github.com/Swarkin/godot-gh/blob/main/src/main.rs

(this is the app visually)

[worldly crane]

welcome to immediate mode ui and egui's cursor model

honestly i dont see anything super wrong with ur code

[plain hornet]

yeah but like

im cloning a whole option type just to use its value

at line 63

because the compiler doesnt shut up if I try to do it differently

[autumn axle]

there's a nice method on options called as_ref which you could use there

if you have &Option<T> it becomes Option<&T>

[carmine ocean]

you generally need to clone strings if you want to use them in multiple places at once. A lot of functions wants mutable access to strings, and a String is a mutable reference to a string slice, &str.

[plain hornet]

also I'd like to know if I can make this a reference to one of the Milestone structs that exist in the array right above the selected text without all this weird lifetime stuff

[pastel venture]

you can't.

[plain hornet]

every time I try to use references the compiler tells me that I suck

[pastel venture]

you can't create self-referrential structs in rust without way too much pain.

[plain hornet]

so is storing the index to the selected item the better option here

[pastel venture]

yes

Another option is using something like Rc

this one https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/rc/struct.Rc.html

but i personally think index is nicer

[plain hornet]

I'm not familiar with these container types yet

that's also why I'm having so many issues with this Option thing

[autumn axle]

std's pretty deep for how narrow it is, things get more familiar with time trust me

[plain hornet]

it makes sense in my head but in code nothing works

[pastel venture]

i should probably also mention that Rc has a bunch of its own issues, and you would probably need to do something silly like Rc<RWLock<Milestone>> which is.. not really any easier to work with than the index.

[pastel venture]

I suggest opening the Option docs page https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/enum.Option.html
and reading it in full once. You don't need to memorize anything, just read. Just once. Simply to have a vague idea that these methods exist next time you need something of the sort, and so that you can look them up in more detail if neccessary.
You can do the same for Result.

.. and maaaaybe Iterator if you feel up to it.

[plain hornet]

and what about slightly wrong?

[plain hornet]

ill read it now