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I doubt Rust is going to become used for (the GUI layer of) GUI apps far outside of Rust enthusiast circles. To build a widely attractive ecosystem it needs a d

I doubt Rust is going to become used for (the GUI layer of) GUI apps far outside of Rust enthusiast circles. To build a widely attractive ecosystem it needs a dominant framework to which enough of the many widget and theming and distribution libraries and tools necessary for broad adoption attach. Rust's culture in this respect is far more Clojure (bolt together your own from a thousand options) than Elixir (just use Phoenix). I have no doubt Rust will be used as part of many GUI apps via Tauri and others. 1Password shows how successful it can be as the real core of an app that has a separate web-tech GUI layer. There's enough energy in the Rust ecosystem that I'm sure niche adoption will continue. But all-Rust apps beyond HN/Github-browsing/System76 circles? My guess is it's unlikely.

bsaul 3y ago
My guess is Rust is going to experience its first test in the next two years, where the general people will see what it's really good for, and what's it not, because it won't be the "new hot thing" anymore. Only then we will know if it has chance of really becoming widely used as a general purpose PL.
- crispinb 3y ago
  If by 'general purpose PL' you mean one used to write mainstream GUI apps, I nearly agree though I'd bet against Rust on that score. If however you mean one used across a wide variety of industries, software types, and hardware, I think its future is already assured there. My own guess is that Rust will become quite ubiquitous for the performant and stable core of many software systems, with the interactive levels handled by other languages.