[GTALUG] Programming languages (in comparison?) - -was Learn Swift for Apple/iOS. Learn ??? for Google/Android.

Jamon Camisso jamon.camisso at utoronto.ca
Sun Dec 10 19:15:01 EST 2017


On 2017-12-10 06:13 PM, o1bigtenor wrote:
>> I think you'll be surprised at how well the latest Firefox 57 performs.
>> It's their first release featuring core browser components written in Rust.
>>
>> Fast and stable for me. Give it a try and see if your characterization
>> above still holds.
>>
> 
> Somehow - - - - I've been hearing similar for about what - - - maybe about
> 4 or 5
> years. You really think its true this time? (After watching maybe 20+
> upgrades and
> its still the same mess for how it works - - - I'm more than a little
> skeptical!)

https://blog.rust-lang.org/2017/11/14/Fearless-Concurrency-In-Firefox-Quantum.html
is a good write up on how rust is used in Firefox's newest release (57).
It is a completely new CSS engine written in Rust that runs within the
browser itself.

>From my reading, rust enabled the FF devs to parallelize CSS rendering
across CPU cores relatively easily with thread safety, meaning faster
page rendering and fewer crashes or lock ups for you and me.

It also sounds like this is just the beginning of rust in Firefox, and I
for one look forward to seeing other components of the browser running
rust for the performance and stability it promises.

Cheers, Jamon


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