Re:Mitigating Memory Safety Issues in Open Source Software
by jaas on Thursday February 18, 2021 @01:45PM
(#26183808)
Rust is going to be used often, but we are open to other choices when they make sense.
Since most unsafe code is C or C++, Rust usually makes the most sense for rewriting one component at a time. It integrates with C and C++ very cleanly because it has good FFI and no runtime.
If we were rewriting more projects from scratch and integration with existing C and C++ code was not important, we might use other languages more often. I don't expect we'll attempt to rewrite many pieces of software from scratch.
Source: I run the memory safety initiative at ISRG.
Since most unsafe code is C or C++, Rust usually makes the most sense for rewriting one component at a time. It integrates with C and C++ very cleanly because it has good FFI and no runtime.
If we were rewriting more projects from scratch and integration with existing C and C++ code was not important, we might use other languages more often. I don't expect we'll attempt to rewrite many pieces of software from scratch.
Source: I run the memory safety initiative at ISRG.