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It's a good point that a language needs a platform to really shine. I think one place where Rust can find it is by targeting WASM and being the first systems la

It's a good point that a language needs a platform to really shine. I think one place where Rust can find it is by targeting WASM and being the first systems language that can compile to code that runs in the browser. The rustc compiler supports WASM out of the box and I think this is one direction that the language adoption is going to grow. Another platform is cryptocurrencies/blockchains- Rust lends itself uniquely as a modern C++ for writing performant blockchain protocols. This is evidenced by the Parity team using Rust exclusively for all their projects. As that world evolves Rust can find a foothold there as well - there is no real legacy code floating around, the Bitcoin protocol is only 10 years old.

oscargrouch 8y ago
These are definitely a couple of good bets to be aiming for. The blockchain trend reminds me that Rust could also try to find some cosy home in banking software, in expert systems and in embedded software. The key now is to be humble and not to try to pick up a fight with C and C++ just yet. Go only now is in a position to pick a fight against Java in the server and in the cloud, and Rust will probably need to get into the same point of adoption, if it wants to be seen as a serious contender to those languages in the eyes of the people they need to convince. Unfortunatelly Rust missed a good new trend now, with multi-platform cores for mobile phones that ended up being written mostly in C++. Rust wasnt even invented when people were trying to solve the problem of multi-os phone apps. And that is the current trend which is giving the system development trend a second chance. But is not that bad, because thats exactly what is making people to take a serious look at Rust. Battery life, memory, storage. It all matters again thanks to the phone environments, and you cant afford the be wrapped in layers upon layers of software virtualization like it was common in the early PC era, where Java and C# were kings.

oscargrouch 8y ago

These are definitely a couple of good bets to be aiming for. The blockchain trend reminds me that Rust could also try to find some cosy home in banking software, in expert systems and in embedded software. The key now is to be humble and not to try to pick up a fight with C and C++ just yet. Go only now is in a position to pick a fight against Java in the server and in the cloud, and Rust will probably need to get into the same point of adoption, if it wants to be seen as a serious contender to those languages in the eyes of the people they need to convince. Unfortunatelly Rust missed a good new trend now, with multi-platform cores for mobile phones that ended up being written mostly in C++. Rust wasnt even invented when people were trying to solve the problem of multi-os phone apps. And that is the current trend which is giving the system development trend a second chance. But is not that bad, because thats exactly what is making people to take a serious look at Rust. Battery life, memory, storage. It all matters again thanks to the phone environments, and you cant afford the be wrapped in layers upon layers of software virtualization like it was common in the early PC era, where Java and C# were kings.