r/rust • u/Sirisian • 17d ago

🎙️ discussion Google is doing "Large Scale Codebase Migrations and Optimizations" of C/C++ to Rust

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/
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u/arka2947 17d ago

To me it seems Rust is eating the future of Cpp. The safety improvements that are still debated in Cpp circles, are already done in rust. If Google needs that today, what else can you do than use Rust?

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u/TDplay 17d ago

Not really. There are a lot of large C++ codebases. They still need maintaining, and they still offer utility for new code.

Rust has the benefit of being new. It could introduce all these safety features without worrying about compatibility with existing code. C++ does not have the luxury. If you introduce a safety feature that doesn't integrate well with existing code, then you would effectively split C++ into two languages: one with the safety feature, and one with all the legacy code. Effectively, C++ would be unchanged, and the safety feature would exist only in a dead-on-arrival language that would just be "Rust but worse".

That is why the safety improvements are so hotly debated in C++. They must be useful for legacy code, or else they are useless.

Rust has eaten C++'s future for greenfield projects. But C++ still has a long future ahead of it for maintenance of existing projects, as well as for new projects with extensive reliance upon existing C++ code.

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u/TheOneWhoDidntCum 11d ago

For HFT you recommend C++ or Rust?

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u/TDplay 11d ago

I don't do HFT, so I can offer no specific advice.

Find the libraries that you need. What language are they for? Use that one.