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Rust is interesting in that it may eventually end up as a very useful language for WASM work. Rust has the advantage that when compiled to WASM it won't requir
by Lio 6y ago
Rust is interesting in that it may eventually end up as a very useful language for WASM work.
Rust has the advantage that when compiled to WASM it won't require a runtime library. So the prospect of Rust as a fast, low overhead, use anywhere language is tempting.
Since Rust is a relatively new language it's worth checking to see how it's maturing over time against small low risk projects exactly as the author has done.
Rust may not be a perfect fit right now but that may change. So it's very valid to test one's assumptions from time to time.
Or to put it another way, working in one of the languages you've mentioned wouldn't answer the question "how suitable is Rust for web server work right now?"
- jfkebwjsbx 6y agoAll that applies to several other very mature languages that can target WASM, like C. Nevertheless, WASM is not ideal for server work. It is intended for the frontend.
- Lio 6y agoSorry, I may not have explained my point clearly enough. I'm not suggesting that you would use WASM for server work at all. I'm suggesting that Rust would be interesting for WASM on the frontend because it doesn't depend on a runtime. Given that you might want to use Rust for WASM you may also want to use it on the backend (that's without using WASM on the backend). The assessment of Rust via small projects says nothing about the suitability or not of C or any other language. It's just about the suitability of Rust right now and how it's changed from the last time you assessed it.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y agoFair enough. I wanted to mention that Rust is not the only language that targets WASM since you talked about maturity.
- estebank 6y agoI am really looking forward to WASM as the technology of choice for language agnostic performant plugins. That is a backend niche.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y agoDynamic linking has been a thing for 50 years. No need for WASM for that.
- estebank 6y agoDynamic linking provides no process isolation or higher level constructs through the ffi boundary.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y agoBinary interfaces with process isolation have existed for at least 30 years, too.