vds

Visibly Distinguishable Strings — a #![no_std] Rust crate for creating and validating string identifiers composed of easily readable characters.

This crate helps you generate and work with strings that:

• Exclude confusing glyphs like O, 0, I, 1
• Use only uppercase Latin letters and select digits
• Are safe for UI display, voice transmission, QR encoding, and more

🚀 Getting Started

Install via Cargo:

cargo add vds

Enable optional features:

• serde — enables Serialize/Deserialize for VDChar and VDString
• generate — adds a builder for random string generation using rand_core

[dependencies]
vds = { version = "1.0", features = ["generate", "serde"] }

🎯 Types

VDChar

A single, clearly readable character from a curated set.

use vds::VDChar;
assert!(VDChar::new('A').is_some());
assert!(VDChar::new('O').is_none()); // O is excluded

VDString

A validated string composed of VDChars. Acts like &str and supports .parse(), indexing, and iteration.

use vds::VDString;
let code: VDString = "AB29XY".parse().unwrap();
assert_eq!(&*code, "AB29XY");

VDGenerator (requires generate feature)

A builder for generating readable strings with optional constraints:

use vds::VDGenerator;
use rand::SeedableRng;

let mut rng = rand::rngs::SmallRng::seed_from_u64(123);
let code = VDGenerator::new()
    .length(8)
    .no_repeats()
    .no_adjacent_repeats()
    .generate(&mut rng)
    .unwrap();

🧪 Development & Testing

🛠 Dev Commands

This repo includes a .cargo/config.toml file with helpful aliases:

• cargo docs — build and open full-featured docs
• cargo tests — run the full test suite with all features
• cargo checks — check build with no default features
• cargo builds — build with all features enabled

📦 Crate Metadata

• License: MIT OR Apache-2.0
• Repo: github.com/ianwillis98/vds
• Minimum Rust: 1.65
• No std required

📜 License

Licensed under either of:

• MIT OR Apache-2.0