Security News > 2024 > February > Google throws $1m at Rust Foundation to build C++ bridges

Google on Monday donated $1 million to the Rust Foundation specifically to improve interoperability between the language and C++. C++, a popular general purpose programming language, has arguably fallen out of fashion due to concerns over safety.

Lars Bergstrom, director of Android platform tools and libraries and chair of the Rust Foundation Board, announced the grant and said that the funding will "Improve the ability of Rust code to interoperate with existing legacy C++ codebases."

Bergstrom told The Register that interoperability with C++ represents one of the biggest obstacles to broader adoption of Rust for Google and other organizations.

"Many existing legacy code bases, as well as core libraries and services, are either written in C++ or only have APIs available in C++, Java, Go, or Python. Integrating Rust today is possible where there is a fallback C API, but for high-performance and high-fidelity interoperability, improving the ability to work directly with C++ code is the single biggest initiative that will further the ability to adopt Rust.".

Google's grant matches a $1 million grant last November from Microsoft, which also committed $10 million in internal investment to make Rust a "First-class language in our engineering systems." The Google-bucks are expected to fund further interoperability efforts, along the lines of KDAB's bidirectional Rust and C++ bindings with Qt. Rebecca Rumbul, executive director and CEO of the Rust Foundation said in a statement that while Rust offers technical advantages, it's unrealistic to expect organizations to abandon existing codebases.

The Rust Foundation has also created a new Interop Initiative to make it more simpleto integrate Rust into existing C++ projects and workflows.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/05/google_rust_donation/