The New Stack Podcast

Rust’s Expanding Horizons: Memory Safe and Lightning Fast

Oct 10, 2024

Joel Marcey, Director of Technology at the Rust Foundation, shares insights on Rust's remarkable rise as a programming language, praised for its speed and safety. He discusses its ambitious expansion into sectors like game development and embedded systems while underlining its growing role in web applications through WebAssembly. Marcey also explores Rust’s competitive edge over Go in performance-critical tasks, highlights recent updates like Rust 1.81, and reveals government interest in enhancing security initiatives within the Rust ecosystem.

23:45

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Episode guests

Joel Marcey

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Rust's versatility is expanding beyond systems programming into embedded systems and game development, showcasing its growing adoption across various domains.

The Rust Security Initiative and government projects aim to enhance security and credibility, positioning Rust as a reliable choice for critical software applications.

Deep dives

Vibrant Rust Community and Conference Insights

The Rust community exhibits strong motivation and vibrancy, especially highlighted at a recent conference where attendance reached full capacity. The event showcased a variety of topics, including the logistics of the Rust project and its applications in game development and the Linux operating system. The enthusiasm among participants was palpable, reflecting a collective desire to see Rust grow as a leading programming language. This indicates that the community is not only engaged but also actively contributing to the expansion of Rust's usage across different sectors.

Intro

2min

The Evolution and Growth of Rust

9min

Navigating Tensions Between Programming Communities

2min

Strengthening Security and Safety in the Rust Ecosystem

4min

Leading Innovation at Rust Foundation

6min

Rust has maintained its place among the top 15 programming languages and has been the most admired language for nine consecutive years. In a New Stack Makers podcast, Joel Marcey, director of technology at the Rust Foundation, discussed the language's growing importance, including initiatives to improve its security, performance, and adoption in various domains. While Rust is widely used in systems and backend programming, it’s also gaining traction in embedded systems, safety-critical applications, game development, and even the Linux kernel.

Marcey highlighted Rust’s strengths as a safe and fast systems language, noting its use on the web through WebAssembly (Wasm), though adoption there is still early. He also addressed Rust vs. Go, explaining that Rust excels in performance-critical applications. Marcey discussed recent updates, such as Rust 1.81, and project goals for 2024, which include a new edition and async improvements.

He also touched on government interest in Rust, including DARPA’s initiative to convert C code to Rust, and the Rust Security Initiative, aimed at maintaining the language’s strong security reputation.

Learn more from The New Stack about Rust

Could Rust be the Future of JavaScript Infrastructure?

Rust Growing Fastest, But JavaScript Reigns Supreme

Rust vs. Zig in Reality: A (Somewhat) Friendly Debate

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