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> Mozilla isn't doing that today. The current code is being "slowly but surely improved," and the use of Rust is largely happening only in new components (and n

> Mozilla isn't doing that today. The current code is being "slowly but surely improved," and the use of Rust is largely happening only in new components (and not all new components are being written in Rust!). There's very little gratuitous conversion of C++ code to Rust. So one can build FF without Rust? Because if the answer is "Not any more" then it is a beginning of a rewrite, just done slower.

jcranmer 7y ago
It is not the beginning of a rewrite just because Firefox requires Rust. All that it means is that there are now three languages you can choose to use to implement Firefox components, instead of just two. You're conflating the ability to choose Rust in addition to C/C++ with the intent to replace C/C++ code with Rust.
- notyourday 7y ago
  Not at all. There was a state X, where to build FF one needed to use a certain tool chain. The new state is Y. To build FF one now has to use two tool chains: the previous one and the new one. Not having either of those tool chains prevents the build. That's a definition of a beginning of a rewrite. And it is an incredibly dumb idea from a business perspective which will bite Mozilla in the ass in the future because it is increasing the build complexity today and tomorrow for some pie in the sky promise that may or may not pan out in future. I'm not saying "Don't use Rust for a new project". I'm saying that the software industry is littered with the corpses of entities that decided to add a new way of doing something to an existing project where it did not pan out.
  - dthul 7y ago
    As a counterexample: Stylo alone is already a huge success story, not some "pie in the sky promise that may or may not pan out".
    - notyourday 7y ago
      https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum/Stylo https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum/Stylo Pie in the sky.
      - steveklabnik 7y ago
        Stylo shipped in Firefox 57, under the name "Quantum CSS".
        notyourday 7y ago
        I stand corrected on it being a complete pie in a sky.

jcranmer 7y ago

It is not the beginning of a rewrite just because Firefox requires Rust. All that it means is that there are now three languages you can choose to use to implement Firefox components, instead of just two. You're conflating the ability to choose Rust in addition to C/C++ with the intent to replace C/C++ code with Rust.

notyourday 7y ago
Not at all. There was a state X, where to build FF one needed to use a certain tool chain. The new state is Y. To build FF one now has to use two tool chains: the previous one and the new one. Not having either of those tool chains prevents the build. That's a definition of a beginning of a rewrite. And it is an incredibly dumb idea from a business perspective which will bite Mozilla in the ass in the future because it is increasing the build complexity today and tomorrow for some pie in the sky promise that may or may not pan out in future. I'm not saying "Don't use Rust for a new project". I'm saying that the software industry is littered with the corpses of entities that decided to add a new way of doing something to an existing project where it did not pan out.
- dthul 7y ago
  As a counterexample: Stylo alone is already a huge success story, not some "pie in the sky promise that may or may not pan out".
  - notyourday 7y ago
    https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum/Stylo https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum/Stylo Pie in the sky.
    - steveklabnik 7y ago
      Stylo shipped in Firefox 57, under the name "Quantum CSS".
      - notyourday 7y ago
        I stand corrected on it being a complete pie in a sky.