Rust (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:11, 29 August 2025

Revision as of 01:31, 30 August 2025

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Rust has been noted for its adoption in many software projects, especially [[web services]] and [[system software]]. It has been studied academically and has a growing community of developers.

==Etymology==

Rust was named for the [[Rust (fungus)|group of fungi]] that are "over-engineered for survival".<ref name="MITTechReview"/>

The Rust logo was developed in 2011 based on a bicycle [[Crankset#Chainring|chainring]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Rust logo |url=https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680521 |website=[[Bugzilla]] |access-date=2 February 2024 |archive-date=2024-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240202045212/https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680521 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== History ==

=== 2006–2009: Early years ===

[[File:MozillaCaliforniaHeadquarters.JPG|thumb|right|Mozilla Foundation headquarters, 650 Castro Street in [[Mountain View, California]], June 2009]]

Rust began as a personal project by [[Mozilla]] employee Graydon Hoare in 2006.<ref name="MITTechReview">{{cite web |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1067869/rust-worlds-fastest-growing-programming-language/ |title=How Rust went from a side project to the world's most-loved programming language |last=Thompson |first=Clive |date=2023-02-14 |website=MIT Technology Review |language=en |access-date=2023-02-23 |archive-date=2024-09-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240919102849/https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/14/1067869/rust-worlds-fastest-growing-programming-language/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Hoare started the project due to his frustration with a broken elevator in his apartment building.<ref name="MITTechReview"/> Hoare has stated that Rust was named for the [[Rust (fungus)|group of fungi]] that are "over-engineered for survival".<ref name="MITTechReview"/> During the time period between 2006 and 2009, Rust was not publicized to others at Mozilla and was written in Hoare's free time;<ref name=Klabnik2016ACMHistory>{{Cite book |last=Klabnik |first=Steve |chapter=The History of Rust |date=2016-06-02 |title=Applicative 2016 |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2959689.2960081 |page=80 |___location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |doi=10.1145/2959689.2960081 |isbn=978-1-4503-4464-7}}</ref>{{rp|at=7:50}} Hoare began speaking about the language around 2009 after a small group at Mozilla became interested in the project.<ref name=Hoare2010>{{Cite conference |url=http://venge.net/graydon/talks/intro-talk-2.pdf |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211226213836/http://venge.net/graydon/talks/intro-talk-2.pdf |archive-date=2021-12-26 |last=Hoare |first=Graydon |title=Project Servo: Technology from the past come to save the future from itself |publisher=Mozilla Annual Summit |date=July 2010 |access-date=2024-10-29 }}</ref> Hoare emphasized prioritizing good ideas from old languages over new development, citing languages including [[CLU (programming language)|CLU]] (1974), [[BETA (programming language)|BETA]] (1975), [[Mesa (programming language)|Mesa]] (1977), [[NIL (programming language)|NIL]] (1981), [[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]] (1987), [[Newsqueak]] (1988), [[Napier88|Napier]] (1988), [[Hermes (programming language)|Hermes]] (1990), [[Sather]] (1990), [[Alef (programming language)|Alef]] (1992), and [[Limbo (programming language)|Limbo]] (1996) as influences, stating "many older languages [are] better than new ones", and describing the language as "technology from the past come to save the future from itself."<ref name=Klabnik2016ACMHistory/>{{rp|at=8:17}}<ref name=Hoare2010/> Early Rust developer Manish Goregaokar similarly described Rust as being based on "mostly decades-old research."<ref name="MITTechReview"/>

During the early years, the Rust [[compiler]] was written in about 38,000 lines of [[OCaml]].<ref name=Klabnik2016ACMHistory/>{{rp|at=15:34}}<ref name=OCamlCompiler>{{Cite web |last=Hoare |first=Graydon |title=Rust Prehistory (Archive of the original Rust OCaml compiler source code) |website=[[GitHub]] |date=November 2016 |url=https://github.com/graydon/rust-prehistory/tree/master |access-date=2024-10-29 }}</ref> Early Rust contained features such as explicit [[object-oriented programming]] via an {{code|obj}} keyword (later removed),<ref name=Klabnik2016ACMHistory/>{{rp|at=10:08}} and a [[typestate analysis|typestates]] system that would allow variables of a type to be tracked along with state changes (such as going from uninitialized to initialized).<ref name=Klabnik2016ACMHistory/>{{rp|at=13:12}}

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Mozilla officially sponsored the Rust project in 2009.<ref name="MITTechReview"/> [[Brendan Eich]] and other executives, intrigued by the possibility of using Rust for a safe [[web browser]] [[browser engine|engine]], placed engineers on the project including Patrick Walton, Niko Matsakis, Felix Klock, and Manish Goregaokar.<ref name="MITTechReview"/> A conference room taken by the project developers was dubbed "the nerd cave," with a sign placed outside the door.<ref name="MITTechReview"/>

During this time period, work had shifted from the initial OCaml compiler to a [[Self-hosting (compilers)|self-hosting compiler]], ''i.e.'', written in Rust, based on [[LLVM]].<ref name=Rust0.1>{{Cite web |title=0.1 first supported public release Milestone · rust-lang/rust |url=https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/milestone/3?closed=1 |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=[[GitHub]] |language=en}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|The list of Rust compiler versions (referred to as a bootstrapping chain) has history going back to 2012.<ref name=Nelson2022RustConf>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUIjG-y4zaA |last=Nelson |first=Jynn |title=RustConf 2022 - Bootstrapping: The once and future compiler |publisher=Rust Team |date=2022-08-05 |access-date=2024-10-29 |___location=Portland, Oregon |via=YouTube}}</ref>}} The Rust ownership system was also in place by 2010.<ref name="MITTechReview"/> The Rust logo was developed in 2011 based on a bicycle [[Crankset#Chainring|chainring]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Rust logo |url=https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680521 |website=[[Bugzilla]] |access-date=2 February 2024 |archive-date=2024-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240202045212/https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680521 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first public release, Rust 0.1 was released on January 20, 2012<ref name=Rust0.1a>{{Cite mailing list |last=Anderson |first=Brian |date=2012-01-24 |title=[rust-dev] The Rust compiler 0.1 is unleashed |url=https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2012-January/001256.html |mailing-list=rust-dev |access-date=2025-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120124160628/https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2012-January/001256.html |archive-date=January 24, 2012 }}</ref> for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.<ref name=ExtremeTechRust0.1>{{Cite web |last=Anthony |first=Sebastian |date=2012-01-24 |title=Mozilla releases Rust 0.1, the language that will eventually usurp Firefox's C++ |url=https://www.extremetech.com/internet/115207-mozilla-releases-rust-0-1-the-language-that-will-eventually-usurp-firefoxs-c |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=ExtremeTech |language=en}}</ref> The early 2010s saw increasing involvement from open source volunteers outside of Mozilla and outside of the United States. At Mozilla, executives would eventually employ over a dozen engineers to work on Rust full time over the next decade.<ref name="MITTechReview"/>