The rise of Rust, the programming language going viral

In the world of programming, languages can start holy wars.

Established languages like JavaScript and Python have been staples of the tech world for decades — but Rust, a programming language that began as a side project at Mozilla in 2010, is gaining steam, per Wired.

Why Rust?

There are two reasons it’s blowing up right now:

• Security: Rust makes it impossible for programmers to add memory-safety bugs to their code, which account for ~70% of security vulnerabilities.
• Performance: While Rust isn’t the only “memory-safe” language out there, its advocates say it’s faster than other ones, like Java.

These traits, combined with a growing community, have earned the language rave reviews.

In June, Rust won the title of most loved language on Stack Overflow for the seventh year in a row, with 87% of users saying they want to continue using it.

It’s not just developers

Some of the biggest players in tech have made big bets on Rust as well:

• Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have been using Rust since 2019, and even partnered with Mozilla and Huawei to create the Rust Foundation, a nonprofit to grow the language.

Of course, no language is perfect, and Rust has its downsides — including a longer learning curve than other languages — but its champions argue the trade-off is worth it.

BTW, to find out what your programming language says about you, this post compares programming languages to zodiac signs.