DEV Community

Cover image for Why might Rust be a smart choice for developers today?
Francesco Ciulla
Francesco Ciulla

Posted on

Why might Rust be a smart choice for developers today?

Why might Rust be a smart choice for developers today?

Video Version

Rust was recently added to the Linux kernel, the first new language in nearly 30 years, endorsed by Linus Torvalds himself. It’s gaining traction for its focus on safety and reliability.

DARPA is backing Rust, aiming to convert millions of lines of C code to eliminate common security vulnerabilities.

Google reports that developers using Rust are twice as productive compared to C++. It's been crucial in reducing memory usage and defects in projects like Android.

Microsoft and Google have each invested $1 million in Rust's growth, showing confidence in its future.

Rust has been voted the most admired programming language by developers for many years in a row, even surpassing Kotlin in popularity and closing in on GO.

If you're considering a language that’s fast, safe, and gaining wide trust, Rust is worth a look.

Sources:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/rust-in-linux-where-we-are-and-where-were-going-next/
https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/darpa-aims-to-ditch-c-code-move-to-rust
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/technology/
https://techinformed.com/world-in-disruption-trust-in-rust/
https://thenewstack.io/microsofts-1m-vote-of-confidence-in-rusts-future/
https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/05/google_rust_donation/

Top comments (25)

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

You're explaining what is happening, but the reason developers should embrace the language is why it is happening. Rust has four strong points:

  • excellent core libraries with well-designed APIs
  • immensely helpful compiler messages and tooling
  • simple core syntax augmented by macros to balance complexity well
  • safety and performance by design
Collapse
 
alvarordmrdt profile image
Álvaro Luca Riccardi Roca de Togores

Hey just wondering I didn't try rust yet, rust is well developed for APIs / backend then?

Collapse
 
francescoxx profile image
Francesco Ciulla

its ecosystem is growing and I already stared exploring the web frameworks parts, and I can say it's promising, even if it's not very mature yet. we'll see what will happen in 2025

Thread Thread
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

I think the backend parts like actix or rocket are pretty established by now. Front-end frameworks like yew are still gaining maturity – as their JS counterparts are growing now faster than ever with the establishment of signals in a TC39 proposal.

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

Yes, very much so.

Collapse
 
hanan_smani_8c40166b837f4 profile image
Hanan Smani

Shuttle.rs

Collapse
 
hanan_smani_8c40166b837f4 profile image
Hanan Smani

Also cargo is great so that's a plus

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

As I said about tooling, it's really good.

Collapse
 
francescoxx profile image
Francesco Ciulla

well said. In this article, I talked more about the community aspect and external reasons, as I already advocate about these things. But nice addition,

Collapse
 
parasparmar profile image
Paras Parmar

Alex, I believe you would have written a far better article on this topic. Please try to do so, we'd all really appreciate your observations.

Collapse
 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

I think Francesco is already doing a fine job on his series of Rust articles. I was just pointing out that his headline and the content do not exactly match.

Also, while I'm not foreign to Rust, I'm far from being an expert on the topic.

Collapse
 
eshimischi profile image
eshimischi

Tauri is becoming a beneficial tool instead of Electron for web native applications too

Collapse
 
francescoxx profile image
Francesco Ciulla

I know, I will look into that

Collapse
 
shvahabi profile image
Shahed

I'd rather recommend Scala as the smartest choice a developor can ever make, its features are unbeatable, no other language can even be close to Scala. And it compiles to native via objectiveC and LLVM as well as JVM and JS. Other choices can only be justifiable if you omit Scala from the choice set.

Collapse
 
abhiramp_2005 profile image
Abhiram

Rust is an excellent choice for system programming for those willing to invest the necessary effort to master the language.

Collapse
 
francescoxx profile image
Francesco Ciulla

True.

Collapse
 
nabir14 profile image
Nabir14

Tell me you code in Rust without telling me you code in Rust.

Collapse
 
steve_nordquist_58ca9190 profile image
Steve Nordquist

Tell me you just run what codeconverter.io hands around until it's Rust and works and, also, doesn't import stdlibc. (D+ mixed in yes phoarr!)

Collapse
 
gekh profile image
German Khokhlov

in rust we trust

Collapse
 
shroomlife profile image
shroomlife 🍄

Who needs C++ and so it continues... Who needs Rust?

Collapse
 
richard_ekeopara_84627a31 profile image
Riccardo

Hi All,
Have we, so soon, forgotten about F#?
I will admit that I'm still new to it.
It's an awesome language, very expressive and cuts out all the frills too.
I have nothing against Rust but want developers appreciate this language too.

Collapse
 
ashley_manraj_115e0278069 profile image
Ashley Manraj • Edited

After exploring it in depth, I could see rust gaining a lot of traction for OS or powerful frameworks or iOT. But not for micro service development compared to Golang (try implementing correctly green thread/mutex memory management compared to the much lower complexity overhead in Go garbage collection). Also rust libraries are way less mature than Go for micro service development (cloud libraries, third parties that gets improved overtime)

Collapse
 
abrahamn profile image
Abraham

I think it's a useful to add to your toolbelt, like Javascript/Python or actually adding what it replaces C/C++ to know what makes a hammer and a mallet both useful.