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Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

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Re: Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

#71
post #5

What does "Rust-based" even mean? Inspired by Rust? Does it transpile to Rust or something? Very confusing phrasing to me...

On the road to R# I guess. I guess shipping Windows API cargo crates makes too much sense. Does anyone have any context for gaps in Rust they are addressing? In TFA it mentions that ownership will be based on groups of objects, but I’m not sure I understand what this solves that a struct doesn’t.

> I guess shipping Windows API cargo crates makes too much sense. Does anyone have any context for gaps in Rust they are addressing?

I haven't finished digging through the OP, but it looks like a bunch of Microsoft employees (already aware of Rust's safety benefits) have started recognizing the commitment to FFI as well. My last project had a feature that depended on a bind to win32, which turned out to be the most time consuming aspect - as it demanded a bunch of tooling that was otherwise unnecessary (valgrind, etc). If they were to take stewardship of that interface, lots of unsafe{} would disappear overnight.

https://kennykerr.ca/2019/11/05/rust/

Re: Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

#75
post #5

What does "Rust-based" even mean? Inspired by Rust? Does it transpile to Rust or something? Very confusing phrasing to me...

Historically it means they would start with Rust and then add in just enough Windows proprietary stuff to make it not run on any other platform.

Given their past years of behavior and focus on dev tools, what in the world makes you think that would be the case? They ported their chromium browser to every platform from day 1.

Re: Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

#77
post #73
post #72

This is great news. Microsoft is adopting/forking Rust. That means Rust will be supported for all eternity.

It appears to not be an actual fork - the slides say the compiler isn’t implemented

It's just a new, separate research system which has somewhat similar goals to Rust. The headline is basically wrong.

There are also Microsoft teams starting to use Rust, e.g.,

https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2019/11/07/using-rust-in-win...

Re: Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

#78
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically it means they would start with Rust and then add in just enough Windows proprietary stuff to make it not run on any other platform.

Given their past years of behavior and focus on dev tools, what in the world makes you think that would be the case? They ported their chromium browser to every platform from day 1.

Two words: Steve Ballmer.

Re: Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

#79
post #45
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did read that. So it's not a straight clone, but still, Rust has enough of an uphill battle as it is to reach wide adoption, without having its target market fragmented. So I would've been excited to see Microsoft embracing it instead of building a competitor. Not that I can necessarily judge them for that, but it's still disappointing.

Having rust as the only low level language with ownership concept isn't ideal either.

>> Having rust as the only low level language with ownership concept isn't ideal either.

I dont agree. Proliferation of languages has it's down side. Very few are self hosting, with most being built with C++. Rust is a safe C++ replacement. We dont need a bunch of those.

Re: Microsoft is creating a new Rust-based programming language for secure coding

#80
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given their past years of behavior and focus on dev tools, what in the world makes you think that would be the case? They ported their chromium browser to every platform from day 1.

Two words: Steve Ballmer.

The former CEO who retired five years ago?
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