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Actually this would be a very good first candidate for a Rust module - it's a significant newly developed piece of software, so nobody can say that they "(re)wr

by rob74 3y ago

Actually this would be a very good first candidate for a Rust module - it's a significant newly developed piece of software, so nobody can say that they "(re)wrote it in Rust" just for the heck of it, and its impact is relatively isolated (only used on Apple Silicon Macs), so if something did break, it would mostly only hurt Asahi Linux, which is currently experimental anyway.

saagarjha 3y ago
Well it's less that they rewrote it in Rust for the heck of it and more that they wrote it in Rust for the heck of it. Seems like it's going OK for them, though.
- jorvi 3y ago
  Not “for the heck of it”, it brings significant benefits compared to rawdogging it in C++.
  - Yoric 3y ago
    In C++? Is there any C++ in the Linux kernel these days?
    - phkahler 3y ago
      Mo. C++ is not allowed in the kernel but Rust is. I think that says a lot given that both were proposed.
- rob74 3y ago
  Well no, actually they explain their reasons for doing it in the article others linked here (https://asahilinux.org/2022/11/tales-of-the-m1-gpu/ https://asahilinux.org/2022/11/tales-of-the-m1-gpu/, section "A new language for the Linux kernel"), and it sounds pretty convincing - if you start a basically new and very complex driver project, and if there is a language more modern than C that might help you and is officially supported by the kernel, then why not use it?
  - saagarjha 3y ago
    Well for one it won't be heading upstream anytime soon, so they could have really picked any language they wanted. Rust definitely wasn't a bad choice but they did actively choose it because they wanted to.