Development Environment Advice Reference Doc (#2759)

Closes https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk-docs/issues/63

---------

Co-authored-by: Dónal Murray <donal.murray@parity.io>
Co-authored-by: PG Herveou <pgherveou@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: joe petrowski <25483142+joepetrowski@users.noreply.github.com>

docs/sdk/src/reference_docs/development_environment_advice.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+//! # Development Environment Advice
+//!
+//! Large Rust projects are known for sometimes long compile times and sluggish dev tooling, and
+//! polkadot-sdk is no exception.
+//!
+//! This page contains some advice to improve your workflow when using common tooling.
+//!
+//! ## Rust Analyzer Configuration
+//!
+//! [Rust Analyzer](https://rust-analyzer.github.io/) is the defacto [LSP](https://langserver.org/) for Rust. Its default
+//! settings are fine for smaller projects, but not well optimised for polkadot-sdk.
+//!
+//! Below is a suggested configuration for VSCode:
+//!
+//! ```json
+//! {
+//!   // Use a separate target dir for Rust Analyzer. Helpful if you want to use Rust
+//!   // Analyzer and cargo on the command line at the same time.
+//!   "rust-analyzer.rust.analyzerTargetDir": "target/vscode-rust-analyzer",
+//!   // Improve stability
+//!   "rust-analyzer.server.extraEnv": {
+//!     "CHALK_OVERFLOW_DEPTH": "100000000",
+//!     "CHALK_SOLVER_MAX_SIZE": "10000000"
+//!   },
+//!   // Check feature-gated code
+//!   "rust-analyzer.cargo.features": "all",
+//!   "rust-analyzer.cargo.extraEnv": {
+//!     // Skip building WASM, there is never need for it here
+//!     "SKIP_WASM_BUILD": "1"
+//!   },
+//!   // Don't expand some problematic proc_macros
+//!   "rust-analyzer.procMacro.ignored": {
+//!     "async-trait": ["async_trait"],
+//!     "napi-derive": ["napi"],
+//!     "async-recursion": ["async_recursion"],
+//!     "async-std": ["async_std"]
+//!   },
+//!   // Use nightly formatting.
+//!   // See the polkadot-sdk CI job that checks formatting for the current version used in
+//!   // polkadot-sdk.
+//!   "rust-analyzer.rustfmt.extraArgs": ["+nightly-2023-11-01"],
+//! }
+//! ```
+//!
+//! and the same in Lua for `neovim/nvim-lspconfig`:
+//!
+//! ```lua
+//! ["rust-analyzer"] = {
+//!   rust = {
+//!     # Use a separate target dir for Rust Analyzer. Helpful if you want to use Rust
+//!     # Analyzer and cargo on the command line at the same time.
+//!     analyzerTargetDir = "target/nvim-rust-analyzer",
+//!   },
+//!   server = {
+//!     # Improve stability
+//!     extraEnv = {
+//!       ["CHALK_OVERFLOW_DEPTH"] = "100000000",
+//!       ["CHALK_SOLVER_MAX_SIZE"] = "100000000",
+//!     },
+//!   },
+//!   cargo = {
+//!     # Check feature-gated code
+//!     features = "all",
+//!     extraEnv = {
+//!       # Skip building WASM, there is never need for it here
+//!       ["SKIP_WASM_BUILD"] = "1",
+//!     },
+//!   },
+//!   procMacro = {
+//!     # Don't expand some problematic proc_macros
+//!     ignored = {
+//!       ["async-trait"] = { "async_trait" },
+//!       ["napi-derive"] = { "napi" },
+//!       ["async-recursion"] = { "async_recursion" },
+//!       ["async-std"] = { "async_std" },
+//!     },
+//!   },
+//!   rustfmt = {
+//!     # Use nightly formatting.
+//!     # See the polkadot-sdk CI job that checks formatting for the current version used in
+//!     # polkadot-sdk.
+//!     extraArgs = { "+nightly-2023-11-01" },
+//!   },
+//! },
+//! ```
+//!
+//! For the full set of configuration options see <https://rust-analyzer.github.io/manual.html#configuration>.
+//!
+//! ## Cargo Usage
+//!
+//! ### Using `--package` (a.k.a. `-p`)
+//!
+//! polkadot-sdk is a monorepo containing many crates. When you run a cargo command without
+//! `-p`, you will almost certainly compile crates outside of the scope you are working.
+//!
+//! Instead, you should identify the name of the crate you are working on by checking the `name`
+//! field in the closest `Cargo.toml` file. Then, use `-p` with your cargo commands to only compile
+//! that crate.
+//!
+//! ### `SKIP_WASM_BUILD=1` environment variable
+//!
+//! When cargo touches a runtime crate, by default it will also compile the WASM binary,
+//! approximately doubling the compilation time.
+//!
+//! The WASM binary is usually not needed, especially when running `check` or `test`. To skip the
+//! WASM build, set the `SKIP_WASM_BUILD` environment variable to `1`. For example:
+//! `SKIP_WASM_BUILD=1 cargo check -p frame-support`.
+//!
+//! ### Cargo Remote
+//!
+//! If you have a powerful remote server available, you may consider using
+//! [cargo-remote](https://github.com/sgeisler/cargo-remote) to execute cargo commands on it,
+//! freeing up local resources for other tasks like `rust-analyzer`.

docs/sdk/src/reference_docs/mod.rs

@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ pub mod frame_system_accounts;
 /// Learn about the currency-related abstractions provided in FRAME.
 pub mod frame_currency;
 
+/// Advice for configuring your development environment for Substrate development.
+pub mod development_environment_advice;
+
 /// Learn about benchmarking and weight.
 // TODO: @shawntabrizi @ggwpez https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk-docs/issues/50
 pub mod frame_benchmarking_weight;