Re:Was Rust Worth It?
by hiAndrewQuinn on Thursday October 26, 2023 @02:31AM
(#38022386)
I've finally set my mind to properly learning a new language after Python, Haskell, and typescript. I'm looking into Rust especially because of how I've heard it interoperates with Python (and also because it's maybe being used in the Linux kernel? Is that correct?).
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Re:Was Rust Worth It?
by PartiallyTyped on Thursday October 26, 2023 @02:33AM
(#38022405)
Linux kernel has support for rust userland drivers, and rust interops with python with pyo3.
Not sure what you mean by "userland" drivers here, but support for kernel modules written in rust is actively being developed. It's already being used for kernel drivers like the Asahi Linux GPU driver for M1 Macs.
Re:Was Rust Worth It?
by PartiallyTyped on Thursday October 26, 2023 @03:34AM
(#38022807)
I am referring to userspace / userland drivers.
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.18/driver-api/uio-howto.h...
But you can write userspace drivers in any language, as long as that language has basic file I/O and mmap() support. There's nothing special about using Rust for userspace drivers.
Isn't this false? Don't certain languages basically need, say, a libc that isn't nessesarily available in kernel space?
Rust is an excellent follow up to those languages. It's got many influences from Haskell, but is designed to solve for a very different task that's not yet in your repertoire so you'll learn a ton.
And yes the Python interop is excellent.
Re:Was Rust Worth It?
by hiAndrewQuinn on Thursday October 26, 2023 @04:54AM
(#38023299)
I'm sold, thank you. Yes, it felt like a great "missing quadrant" to my generalist skillset.