diff --git a/.ruby-version b/.ruby-version index 73462a5..e70b452 100644 --- a/.ruby-version +++ b/.ruby-version @@ -1 +1 @@ -2.5.1 +2.6.0 diff --git a/content/technical/2019/01/goals-directions-rust-2019.md b/content/technical/2019/01/goals-directions-rust-2019.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29f8a6d --- /dev/null +++ b/content/technical/2019/01/goals-directions-rust-2019.md @@ -0,0 +1,193 @@ +_This is my response to the [call for 2019 roadmap blog posts][rust2019] +proposing goals and directions for 2019 and future editions. See also [Read +Rust][readrust], where I've collected all the #Rust2019 posts._ + +2018 was a very busy year for the Rust project. A new edition was released, +progress on stabilising Rust's asynchronous I/O story was made, a new website +was launched, and so much more! In 2019 I'd like to see the language and +wider crates community become more sustainable, address some common gothca's +that newcomers experience, and promote more platforms/architectures to tier 1 +status. + +## 2018 Retrospective + +Before diving into 2019 goals I think it's worth tracking how the project went +on my ideas from [last year][rust2018]: + +1. Become a better option for building network daemons and HTTP + micro-services. +1. Continue to improve the discoverability and approachability of crates and + Rust's web presence in general. +1. Gain wider, more diverse tier-1 platform support (especially on servers). +1. Start delivering on the prospect of safer system components, with fewer + security holes. + +### Network Services + +A lot of progress was made on [Futures] async/await in 2018. The keywords were +reserved in the 2018 edition but are not yet usable on a stable release. [Are +we async yet?][areweasyncyet] shows there's still some work to do. [Hyper] saw +more major changes to keep up with the Futures work and added HTTP/2 support! + +### Improve Rust's Web Presence + +The Rust web presence was improved with the release of the new website and +blog. The rest of the ecosystem remains much the same. Content from crates.io +is still largely invisible to non-Google search engines such as +[DuckDuckGo][ddg-results] (my primary web search tool), and Bing. The [Rust +Cookbook][rust-cookbook] remains in the nursery. + +### Platform Support + +[Tier 1 platform support][platform-support] remains unchanged from last year. +There were a number Tier 2 additions/promotions. + +### System Components and Increased Safety + +The oxidisation of [librsvg] continued in 2018 to the point where almost all +the public API is done in terms of Rust. I'm not aware of many other projects +following this path at the moment: + + + +---- + +## Rust 2019 + +In 2019 I'd like to see the Rust community focus on three areas: + +1. Sustainable development +1. Make is easier for newcomers to write fast code / don't surprise people +1. More portability + +## Sustainable Development + +Recently [Murphy Randle](https://twitter.com/splodingsocks) and [Jared +Forsyth](https://twitter.com/jaredforsyth) were discussing the [event-stream +compromise][event-stream] on the Reason Town podcast. Jared commented: + +> The problems of having infrastructure that’s based on unpaid labour that has +> a high degree of burnout. + +— [Reason Town podcast episiode 13 @ 19:29](https://overcast.fm/+LfcjXelpg/19:29) + +This is a pretty succinct summary of the problem with our industry. Rust hasn't +shied away from tackling hard problems before and taking on the sustainability +of open source doesn't feel out of the question. There's evidence that many of +the folks deeply involved with the Rust project are already feeling the +pressure and we don't want to lose them to burnout. Such as these posts: + +* [Organizational Debt](https://boats.gitlab.io/blog/post/rust-2019/) by withoutboats +* [ Thoughts on Rust in 2019](https://words.steveklabnik.com/thoughts-on-rust-in-2019) by Steve Klabnik +* [Rust in 2019: Focus on sustainability](http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2019/01/07/rust-in-2019-focus-on-sustainability/) by Niko Matsakis + +Part of this revolves around culture. The Rust community generally values +quality, correctness, performance, and treating each other with respect. I +think it would be possible to make it normal to contribute financially, or +other means (equipment, education) to Rust language and crate developers (where +people are in a position to do so). A simple first step might be allowing for a +donate badge, akin to CI badges to be added to crate meta data and have this +shown on the Crate page. + +Michael Gattozzi covered some similar thoughts in his, +[Rust in 2019: The next year and edition](https://mgattozzi.com/rust-in-2019-the-next-year-and-edition/), +post. + +## Naïve Code Is Fast Code + +People hear that Rust is fast and lean, they try it out converting something +from a language they already know and are surprised to find that it's slower +and/or a much larger binary. + +There are +[many](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/adyd9j/why_is_the_rust_version_of_this_fn_60_slower_than/) +[many](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/aaood3/go_version_of_program_is_40_quicker_than_rust/) +[many](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/7w3v77/why_is_my_rust_code_100x_slower_than_python/) +[many](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/aaood3/go_version_of_program_is_40_quicker_than_rust/) +examples of this in the [Rust Reddit][reddit]. Things that frequently seem to +trip newcomers up are: + +1. Not compiling with `--release` +1. Stdio locking +1. Binary size + +It would be good to apply the [principle of least surprise][pls] here. I think +the current defaults are inspired by the behaviours expected from C/C++ +developers, Rust's original target audience. However the Rust audience is now +much wider than that. With that in mind it might worth reevaluating some of +these things in terms of the current audience. These need not require API +changes, perhaps they could be `clippy` lints. Perhaps they could be slight +changes to language. For example, `cargo` currently says: + +> `Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.11s` + +Perhaps a second line could be added that says: + +> `Compile with --release for an optimized build` + +to help guide people. + +## More Tier 1 Platforms + +This one is inherited from last year. I do all my server hosting with [FreeBSD] +and up until recently used it as my desktop OS as well. It's not uncommon to +uncover portability bugs or assumptions when using such a platform. Portability +is type of diversity of software. It makes it stronger and useful to more +people. + +Rust is already appealing to people because of its portability. I was recently +talking to a veteran developer at the [Melbourne Rust meetup's hack +night][meetup] about what got them into Rust. It was the combination of modern +language features, native binary **and** portability that drew them to Rust. + +To this end I'd like to see more platforms and CPU architectures promoted to +tier 1 status. Up until recently one thing that made this difficult was the +lack of hosted CI services with support for anything other than Linux, macOS, +and Windows. Recently two options have become available that make it possible +to test on other systems, such as FreeBSD. There is [Cirrus CI] which includes +a FreeBSD image in their hosted option, as well as the ability to create +custom images. Secondly there is [sr.ht], a completely open source (but hosted) +option that supports a variety of Linux distributions, and FreeBSD, with more +planned. + +[Pietro Albini suggested in his +post](https://www.pietroalbini.org/blog/rust-2019-wishlist/) that the Rust +infrastructure team is already planning to start the discussion on CI options. +I think this would be a perfect opportunity to integrate more platforms into +the CI infrastructure: + +> One of the biggest one is switching away from Travis CI for the compiler +> repository. In the past year we had countless issues with them (both small +> and big), and that's not acceptable when we're paying (a lot) for it. The +> infra team is already planning to start the discussion on where we should +> migrate in the coming weeks, and we'll involve the whole community in the +> discussion when it happens. + +## Conclusion + +After an intense 2018 it sounds like the Rust project needs to focus on making +the project sustainable over time. I'd love to see some improvements to +address issues newcomers often experience and push more platforms to tier +1 status. Rust is still very exciting to me. I can't wait to see what 2019 +brings! + +_For more great #Rust2019 posts check out [readrust.net][readrust]._ + +[Cirrus CI]: https://cirrus-ci.org/ +[sr.ht]: https://meta.sr.ht/ +[pls]: http://principles-wiki.net/principles:principle_of_least_surprise +[event-stream]: https://github.com/dominictarr/event-stream/issues/116 +[reddit]: https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/new/ +[Futures]: https://rust-lang-nursery.github.io/futures-rs/ +[#Rust2018]: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23Rust2018&src=typd +[areweasyncyet]: https://areweasyncyet.rs/ +[ddg-results]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Acrates.io&t=ffab&ia=web +[FreeBSD]: https://www.freebsd.org/ +[Hyper]: https://hyper.rs/ +[librsvg]: https://people.gnome.org/~federico/news-2016-10.html#25 +[platform-support]: https://forge.rust-lang.org/platform-support.html +[readrust]: https://readrust.net/rust-2019/ +[rust-cookbook]: https://rust-lang-nursery.github.io/rust-cookbook/ +[rust2019]: https://blog.rust-lang.org/2018/12/06/call-for-rust-2019-roadmap-blogposts.html +[rust2018]: /2018/01/goals-directions-rust-2018/ +[meetup]: https://www.meetup.com/Rust-Melbourne/ diff --git a/content/technical/2019/01/goals-directions-rust-2019.yaml b/content/technical/2019/01/goals-directions-rust-2019.yaml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a95f567 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/technical/2019/01/goals-directions-rust-2019.yaml @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +--- +title: Goals and Directions for Rust in 2019 +extra: Reflecting on Rust in 2018 and what might be worth focussing on in 2019. +kind: article +section: technical +created_at: 2019-01-14 08:00:00.000000000 +11:00 +keywords: +- rust +short_url: diff --git a/layouts/home.html b/layouts/home.html index fb17454..94ad07f 100644 --- a/layouts/home.html +++ b/layouts/home.html @@ -30,12 +30,6 @@

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