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The Rust Foundation, which supports the development of the popular open source Rust programming language, announced that Google LLC has made a $1 million donation earmarked specifically for the C++/Rust interoperability effort, known as the “Interop Initiative.” shared. This effort aims to facilitate seamless integration between Rust and the widely used C++ programming language, addressing one of the major barriers to Rust adoption on legacy systems with entrenched C++ code. .
Rust has features that prevent common memory errors that plague C++ programs, providing a path to safer and more reliable software systems. However, migrating from C++ to Rust presents significant challenges, especially for organizations with extensive C++ codebases. The Interop Initiative aims to alleviate these challenges by facilitating a smoother transition and allowing organizations to leverage the benefits of Rust without completely overhauling their existing systems.
As part of this effort, the Rust Foundation will work closely with the Rust Project Leadership Council, stakeholders, and member organizations to develop a comprehensive scope of work. This collaboration will focus on enhancing build system integration, exploring artificial intelligence-assisted code transformation techniques, and extending existing interoperability frameworks. By addressing these strategic areas, this initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of Rust across the software industry and contribute to improving memory safety and reducing the prevalence of software vulnerabilities.
A post on Google's security blog said, “We're excited to work together to ensure the additions made are appropriate and address the Rust adoption challenges faced by projects using C++.” says. Improving memory safety across the software industry is one of Google's key technology challenges. We're asking the community and industry at large to work together to make the open source ecosystem safe for everyone. ”
This blog post also includes this quote from Google's VP of Engineering, Android Security, and Privacy: “Based on historical vulnerability density statistics, Rust has actively stopped hundreds of vulnerabilities from impacting the Android ecosystem. This investment will drive the adoption of Rust across various components of the platform. We aim to expand.”
of register addition:
Lars Bergstrom, director of Android Platform Tools and Libraries and chair of the Rust Foundation Board of Directors, announced the grant, saying the funding will “improve the ability of Rust code to interoperate with existing legacy C++ codebases. … Rust integration is possible today.” Although there is a fallback C API, improving the ability to work directly with C++ code is the single biggest effort to drive Rust adoption for high performance and high-fidelity interoperability. ”
According to Bergstrom, Google's use of Rust has seen the most significant growth in Android, where interoperability began to gain traction in 2021, but Rust is being deployed elsewhere as well. It added that 1,000 developers have committed Rust code and that the advertising giant recently released training materials for use. “We also have teams working on building interoperability,” he added. “We hope this team’s efforts to address the unique challenges of Google’s codebase will complement the industry-wide investments made by this new grant to the Rust Foundation.”
Google's grant matches a $1 million grant from last November From MicrosoftThe company also committed $10 million in internal investment to make Rust “the premier language in our engineering systems.” Google's funding is expected to fund further interoperability efforts along the lines of KDAB's two-way binding of Rust and C++ with Qt.
