I feel REALLY GOOD about Rust’s project goals!

If you haven’t read it yet, I’m talking about Rust Project goals for 2024 which is a new-ish blog post written by Niko Matsakis on August 12. In it he states that the Leadership Council has documented 26 goals for 2024 with these 3 being considered “flagship”:

1. finalize preparations for the Rust 2024 edition;

2. bring the Async Rust experience closer to parity with sync Rust;

3. resolve the biggest blockers to the Linux kernel building on stable Rust.

I must admit to having gotten dismayed with Rust leadership, and I “tuned out”. With the logo copyright mess, the dis-invitation of JeanHeyd Meneide and the other inter-team squabbles, it just really seemed like we were going off the rails. This blog post put an end to that for me!

If I had to pick tasks for Rust’s next steps, I feel like I would have chosen the same, and – wow – that makes me feel like we are back on track! The recent news about America’s DARPA TRACTOR program is a real shot in the arm. The best way Rust can continue this journey towards being seen as the go-to-language for reliability is to remove the Linux kernel blockers, 100%

Imagine how much easier it is getting for project tech-leads to spec Rust for projects! "Rust isn't good enough for you Mr. Stakeholder? Oh, well we should let DARPA and Linux know about your objections. Perhaps your insights might help those guys."

The 2024 edition goal is obvious, just look at the calendar. But I do wonder if perhaps Async Rust isn’t the fastest growing segment over the last few years. The heavy focus on improving developer experience is very welcome and will again be more fuel to the fire as to why Rust should be spec'd for the web services / micro-architectures domains.

The other 23 goals are also very good, and I encourage you to read the blog post. Recent momentum seems to have swept away the missteps; let’s hope that continues!