Microsoft is advancing its efforts to transition C and C++ code to Rust, highlighted by research tools designed to ease programming language transitions. The initiative, detailed by Galen Hunt, aims to address technical debt and memory-related vulnerabilities inherent in C and C++ code.
Transition Tools and Efforts
Galen Hunt from Microsoft emphasized that Windows will not be rewritten to Rust. Instead, the focus lies on developing research tooling to streamline transitions between programming languages. Hunt's earlier proposal that drew significant attention suggested leveraging AI and algorithmic tooling to translate extensive codebases to Rust efficiently.
- Microsoft combines AI agents and algorithmic analysis for code understanding.
- Hunt's broad plan: automate large-scale codebase translation using language models.
- Rust transition aims to address memory errors causing vulnerabilities.
Current Employment and Strategy
The company continues to bolster its Rust initiative by hiring for a Principal Software Engineer role requiring systems-level Rust experience. This is part of the Future of Scalable Software Engineering group, tasked with eliminating technical debt at scale. Azure CTO Mark Russinovich has previously enforced a ban on new C/C++ projects, aligning with Microsoft's move towards Rust.
Industry Adoption and Challenges
Rust adoption is witnessing global growth with about 2.3 million developers using the language. Major companies like Google, Amazon, Dropbox, and Cloudflare have integrated Rust for critical systems programming. Despite this, challenges persist in interoperability between C/C++ and Rust, alongside cultural friction in long-term C/C++ projects' code reviews.
