Embrace, extend, and ... port?

Microsoft said: “We are forming a new team focused on enabling the adoption of the Rust programming language as the foundation to modernizing global scale platform services, and beyond”

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    12·
    11 months ago

    Relevant to the article, I have a question to the Rust community as someone who doesn’t know the language.

    Is it a meme that you want to rewrite everything in Rust, or is it kinda actually serious?

    • Destide@feddit.ukEnglish
      27·
      11 months ago
      fn main() {
    println!("Relevant to the article, I have a question to the Rust community as someone who doesn’t know the language.\n\nIs it a meme that you want to rewrite everything in Rust, 
or is it kinda actually serious?");
}
    • Anti-Antidote@lemmy.zip
      19·
      11 months ago

      It’s kinda serious, but definitely also a meme. Basically, Rust is the safest mainstream language out there (unlike languages like C or C++, which are full of foot guns, or things like JavaScript or Python, which aren’t even strongly typed), so there’s a strong desire to rewrite things in just because you often don’t encounter stupid bugs in Rust code - the compiler won’t let you write it. There are safer languages out there, but they’re highly impractical for general purposes and are used for insanely mission critical shit (e.g. pacemakers).

      I’d give this a quick watch: https://youtu.be/voRBS0r4EyI

    • unique_hemp@discuss.tchncs.de
      81·
      11 months ago

      Both. Primarily most software written in C should be rewritten to a memory safe language, be it Rust or some other alternative. Because there is a lot of software written in C, this is a veeeeery long term goal, and will probably never be achieved 100%, but at least Microsoft seems to be on board with this.

      • bluGill@kbin.social
        6·
        11 months ago

        This article is about C# though, which is also memory safe. At least from the article (which is only a few paragraphs that doesn’t say anything more than the headline) there is no indication that microsoft is working on C or C++. (though we know from other sources that Rust is in the kernel where there is C and C++)

        • rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml
          4·
          11 months ago

          I personally assumed they were rewriting it from C# because C# is complete ass that got destroyed by Microsoft’s own insistence on feature creep. The language is a goddamn mess. That said, a ton of languages are a mess but they’re even more baked into shit than C#. Like, Javascript is a bad language, but it’ll probably always be around because…internet.

    • Ignotum@lemmy.world
      4·
      11 months ago

      My company works mostly in Python with some c/c++

      We’re moving to rust due to the strict typing (the lack of which in python leads to many… Let’s say interesting bugs), the speed (blazingly fast compared to python) and memory safety

  • leanleft@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    of course it sucks that rust is fixing decaying capitalist infrastructure. but at least its a good product that we can all maximize our benefits from.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Although headcount at Microsoft might currently be down – by two percent compared to the previous year – recruitment persists at the Windows giant.

    The Substrate does the heavy lifting behind the scenes for Microsoft’s cloud services, making a rewrite into Rust quite a statement of intent.

    Microsoft said: “We are forming a new team focused on enabling the adoption of the Rust programming language as the foundation to modernizing global scale platform services, and beyond.”

    Considering the growing enthusiasm for memory-safe programming, something Rust delivers with far less effort than the likes of C++, Microsoft’s move is unsurprising.

    Memorably, a Microsoft engineer had to rapidly backpedal issue a clarification after proudly proclaiming that Office 365 was being ported to JavaScript.

    In this instance, while Microsoft remains committed to C#, at least in public, its actions over the last few years and the job posting are indications that the company is keeping its options open.

    The original article contains 357 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!