Google insists it's easy to add Rust code to your firmware
www.theregister.com
Not so much when trying to convert coding veterans

Google recently rewrote the firmware for protected virtual machines in its Android Virtualization Framework using the Rust programming language and wants you to do the same, assuming you deal with firmware.

In a write-up on Thursday, Android engineers Ivan Lozano and Dominik Maier dig into the technical details of replacing legacy C and C++ code with Rust.

“You’ll see how easy it is to boost security with drop-in Rust replacements, and we’ll even demonstrate how the Rust toolchain can handle specialized bare-metal targets,” said Lozano and Maier.

Easy is not a term commonly heard with regard to a programming language known for its steep learning curve.

Nor is it easy to get C and C++ developers to see the world with Rust-tinted lenses. Just last week, one of the maintainers of the Rust for Linux project - created to work Rust code into the C-based Linux kernel - stepped down, citing resistance from Linux kernel developers.

“Here’s the thing, you’re not going to force all of us to learn Rust,” said a Linux kernel contributor during a lively discussion earlier this year at a conference.

  • GetOffMyLan@programming.dev
    53·
    3 months ago

    I think the point is they aren’t forcing it at all. It’s being used with the blessing of Linux Jesus and the others are just throwing their toys out of the pram because they don’t want to learn it.

    Someone else linked the video on this post. They are rude as hell and the rust dev isn’t even asking them to use it.

    Again I think that’s a bad attitude towards technology. Use the best tool for the job and you’d get used to the syntax pretty quickly.

    It’s like someone who started on python not wanting to learn a c style language.

    • PushButton@lemmy.world
      47·
      3 months ago

      Get a Foot in the Door

      It starts with “no, you don’t have to learn it”,

      to “your changes are breaking Rust stuff, let’s waste time together to fix it, else I call it ‘bad attitude’”

      to “you better make your stuff that way if you don’t want to break Rust stuff (and waste your time me)”

      to “do it my way, Rust is taking longer to fix and I would have to refactor all the code because of the lifetime cancer”

      to the original senior kernel dev saying: “fuck it, I quit, the kernel is such a mess with the Rust BS” … People don’t want you at the party, make your own party with your own friends we don’t want you here

      It’s not complicated.

      • GetOffMyLan@programming.dev
        91·
        3 months ago

        I mean I’ve still yet to hear a reason not to use rust tbf.

        But yes that’s what working in a team is like.

        I have to do stuff at work so I don’t fuck over the frontend team. I don’t throw a little tantrum about it.

        • PushButton@lemmy.world
          36·
          3 months ago

          Badgering

          I mean I’ve still yet to hear a reason not to use rust tbf.

          You can’t take NO as an answer, don’t you?

          That’s bad attitude

          Linux is not “work”; you surely don’t grasp the reality of the situation here.

          And “tbf”, the incessant pushing of Rust from people like you is a perfectly fine reason to not use Rust…