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Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

theregister.com

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Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#161

Post by imetatroll »

TrackerFF wrote: post #58
mmastrac wrote: post #20

I love writing Rust, but I was really surprised by how difficult it was to find a job _actually_ writing Rust. I'm happy to see the increased activity in the space, but searching for a job in Rust is probably still 10x harder than C or C++. It worked out in the end, and I'm happy to be getting paid to be writing Rust every day, but I hope that the market for Rust jobs continues to grow -- ideally even faster than it…

We acquired a product last year, where the entire back-end was written in Rust. Unfortunately, Rust developers were hard to get by, and we didn't have any internally that could maintain the Rust code at such scale. The entire back-end ended up being re-written.

I honestly wish I could have been in that boat because I crave the opportunity to use rust on the job.

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#162

Post by Xeamek »

josephg wrote: post #139
LtWorf wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying there is no CVE in php, java, go, js, and python?

In their defence, there are entire classes of security bugs that memory safe languages protect you from. A large percentage of the security bugs in Chrome, OpenSSL, iMessage and lots of other apps wouldn’t have happened in any of the languages you listed. Or, almost certainly, in Rust.

And how many of such bugs could be prevented with compiler warnings and flags?

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#163

Post by jauntywundrkind »

fortran77 wrote: post #22
timeon wrote: post #2

I upvote almost any post "in Rust" here (yeah that's me) but this story went bit too far. It was just one job posting and so many sites acts like MS is going to ditch C#.

That’s funny because I downvote almost any “in Rust” post here! C# — and garbage collected languages in general — aren’t going anywhere. With the shift to Arm, languages compiled for a runtime interpreter will get even more important for Microsoft.

May every one of us attain sufficient popularity as to attract people who blankety hate you without even bothering to supply reason or argument. May you be so popular & doing such good things people feel the need to downvote everything they see about it on sight.

Actually personally I wish we could identify such people & ignore their votes. Actually personally I wish we could take persistent downvoters & fire them into the sun. I don't see or understand why anyone would let contempt so deeply into their soul. The world is no zero sum and I have little patience for those would seem to go out of their way to deny & reject others.

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#164

Post by frfl »

pornel wrote: post #127
unclad5968 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't care that it's hard to learn. What turns me off rust is that if I ever make a change that requires a lifetime annotation, I now have to go back through all my code potentially adding lifetime annotations to everything it touches. I was making a little toy compiler in rust and basically gave up when I wanted to make a change that would have amount to string -> string_view in c++ because in rust I now need to t…

This effect of spreading everywhere is very frequently a novice mistake of putting temporary scope-bound loans (AKA references) in structs that aren't temporary views themselves. People used to C or C++ perspective tend to reflexively (over)use references to avoid copying, but references in Rust are to avoid owning , and not-copying is handled in different ways. BTW, apart from edgiest of edge cases, &String is a use…

I feel like this could be a great in depth blog post...unless such a blog post already exists? It would greatly benefit novices and those who haven't gotten to that stage where this mentality kicks in.

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#165

Post by tayo42 »

xedrac wrote: post #143
tayo42 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick way to be annoying and unlikeable at work. The times I've seen rust introduced, and tried it my self, it introduces a whole bunch of related tech debt. Like hacks to make builds work

When I see people on my team (myself included) shoot themselves in the foot over and over with C++, sometimes causing very costly production bugs, and yet I know of a tool that could have prevented nearly all of that pain at compile time, I am going to risk being disliked in order to help lift everyone up. Most people that I mentor on Rust have become completely sold on it after some initial resistance. I don't like…

I think that argument makes sense in a vacuum. Like considering nothing else, yes, 100%, rusts compiler prevents more bugs then c++ would. I don't think bugs are the only way to waste time or break things. In a large company or complex project your never talking about one small code base. There are inter-dependencies within code and outside code. Rewriting all of anything significant is a huge undertaking. In reality your introducing a new language in addition to cpp/java/go. Its another support task. Its another thing to context switch between when your working on "the legacy" repo and the new stuff. You need to be skilled in both languages.

Its like any team that starts writing automation and support projects in python, when their main language is something else. You get trash python scripts and programs. Its another language where technically the domain is right, but the skill is lacking.

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#168

Post by neonsunset »

josephg wrote: post #91
fortran77 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s funny because I downvote almost any “in Rust” post here! C# — and garbage collected languages in general — aren’t going anywhere. With the shift to Arm, languages compiled for a runtime interpreter will get even more important for Microsoft.

> C# — and garbage collected languages in general — aren’t going anywhere. So what? What does that have to do with rust? There’s no fight between C# and rust where only one language will survive. Both languages are great, and both languages probably have a bright future. C# depends on a lot of low level C/C++ code to function and run fast. I can imagine a future where rust enables c# to get better. I love rust, but t…

That’s not technically accurate. While both JIT/ILC and GC are implemented in C++, the former might have as well been written in any other language which would impact the time to JIT/AOT compile the code (startup time) but not the final product. Pretty much all performance-sensitive code is written in C#.

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#169

Post by neonsunset »

Sparkyte wrote: post #64

I imagine it comes down to the handling of threads vs anything else. Technology is rapidly adopting the more cores strategy of technology since we are hitting some IPC limitations and in the server space more cores is better.

Multi-core scaling (in particular within GC) is one of the strongest points of .NET (for example, Go used to have poor scaling on many-core systems (has this changed in 2024?) while in .NET the throughput would continue scaling linearly)).

Re: Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

#170

Post by jasonjmcghee »

sn9 wrote: post #152
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #103

Are there any rust books that have the focus of “ok you are productive in rust, this is what you should know / do to write proper rust”? Edit: ok found https://github.com/sger/RustBooks Any specific recommendations?

It sounds like you want Rust for Rustaceans : https://nostarch.com/rust-rustaceans

Thank you
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