The consequences of C in long-lived software are somewhat known. Granted, the track record of C is mixed, but many important projects have been successful with

The consequences of C in long-lived software are somewhat known. Granted, the track record of C is mixed, but many important projects have been successful with it. Rust is exciting and proving itself about as rapidly as such a language could be expected to do. But there are big questions around how all of this plays out in a long-lived project. There's a good argument that C's simplicity is an asset here. I like Rust a lot and have done some cool stuff with it. I believe the challenges of long-lived projects will be solved. But at the same time, I admit that there are a lot of other factors (including non-trchnical ones). If you pick a language that doesn't last for whatever reason, and you have a couple decades worth of code, the options are grim.