Rust programming language just took a huge step forward



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Rust Programming Language is now supported by the Rust Foundation, an independent organization that will manage the future of the language as more developers begin to use it.

Rust, created at Mozilla as a more secure alternative to C and C ++, quickly became one of the most favored languages ​​for system development, although it is not widely used for application development. .

Google is backing Rust for a key component of the Apache HTTP web server project, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing in the Rust community and is a key sponsor, while Microsoft is considering replacing some components of Windows written in C / C ++ and to develop components for the Azure cloud.

Rust didn’t reach version 1.0 until 2015, so it’s a relatively young language compared to Python, Java, and JavaScript.

The language allowed Mozilla engineers to remove memory-related security bugs in Firefox’s Gecko renderer that were written in C ++. The developers replaced about 160,000 lines of C ++ code in Firefox with 85,000 lines of Rust. Language was essential for Mozilla’s Servo navigation engine.

The creation of the Rust Foundation is an important step for the language. As Niko Matsakis, a former Mozilla engineer, main Rust contributor and now AWS engineer recently pointed out, there is a misconception that Rust is owned by Mozilla.

The foundation is creating a vehicle to accept funding from organizations beyond Mozilla, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure.

“Unfortunately, there is sometimes a lingering perception that Mozilla ‘owns’ Rust, which can discourage companies from investing, or give the impression that there is no need to support Rust since Mozilla is paying the price. The creation of a foundation will make official what has been true in practice for a long time: that Rust is an independent project, ”Matsakis wrote recently.

“We’ve also heard a few times from companies, large and small, who would be interested in supporting Rust financially, but at the moment there is no clear way to do so.

Mozilla will continue to support Rust, but it will not sponsor the project on its own. The Rust Foundation will hold its first board meeting on February 9.

The board includes representatives from AWS, Huawei, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla.

Over the past year, Microsoft has paid Rust’s continuous integration (CI) bills, while AWS has supported its storage costs through S3 for several years.

Until now, the Rust did not operate as a separate legal entity, which was previously the responsibility of Mozilla. These issues affected the project in a number of ways, including Rust’s trademarks and Rust’s package management system, crates.io. Mozilla was also responsible for processing copyright takedown requests under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The Rust team couldn’t do simple things like sign a contract and / or create a bank account from which to manage funds from sponsors like Microsoft and AWS.

“A common example that arises is the need to have an entity that can legally sign contracts“ for the Rust project. ”For example, we recently wanted to join Github’s token analysis program, but we didn’t ‘We haven’t been able to determine who should sign the contract,’ notes Matsakis.

As part of the new arrangement, Mozilla transferred all brand and infrastructure assets to the Rust Foundation, including the crates.io package registry.

“This marks a giant leap in the growth of Rust in several areas; the lesser of them, a formal financial commitment from a set of leading global companies, heralding the arrival of Rust as production-ready technology for enterprises, ”said Ashley Williams, Acting Executive Director of the Rust Foundation.

“I am personally moved and motivated by the sense of responsibility that comes from this commitment. The enthusiastic and enthusiastic participation of our founding sponsors is not only a promise to keep and keep Rust as it is today, but an endorsement of Rust’s values ​​and a commitment to share the responsibility of cultivating the future. Rust aspires to. “

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