A programming language can be fast, safe, or easy to write. As developers, we get to choose our priorities but we can only pick two. Programming languages that emphasize convenience and safety tend to be slow (like Python). Languages that emphasize performance tend to be difficult to use and quick to blow things up (like C and C++). That has been the state of software development for a good long time now.
Is it possible to deliver speed, safety, and ease of use in a single language? The Rust language, originally created by Graydon Hoare and currently sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Arm, and others, attempts to bring together these three attributes in one language. (Google’s Go language has similar ambitions, but Rust aims to make fewer concessions along the way.)
Related video: Developing safer software with Rust
Get up to speed quickly on the Rust language, designed to create fast, system-level software. This two-minute animated explainer shows how Rust bypasses the thorny issues of memory and management.
Rust is meant to be fast, safe, and reasonably easy to use. It’s also intended to be used widely, and not simply end up as a curiosity or an also-ran in the programming language sweepstakes. Good reasons abound for creating a language where safety sits on equal footing with speed and development power. After all, there’s a tremendous amount of software—some of it driving critical infrastructure—built with languages that did not put safety first.