Sysinternals Author : It’s time to retire C/C++ for new projects and use Rust

Microsoft Azure CTO, the main developer of Sysinternals, Mark Russinovich, posted on his social account that it is time for developers to stop using C/C++ to start new projects, and suggested that Rust can be used in scenarios that require the use of non-GC languages.

“Speaking of languages, it’s time to stop starting any new projects in C/C++ and use Rust in those scenarios that require non-GC languages. The industry should announce deprecation of these languages ​​for safety and reliability.”

As soon as this remark came out, it inevitably caused widespread discussion.

 Someone asked if this was his personal opinion or a statement as a CTO.

 .NET Foundation member Shawn Wildermuth asked in the comments , does Rust have enough developers to push the work forward? In response, a developer replied, “It’s really hard to give up C/C++, but it doesn’t matter; young developers can master Rust quickly, compared to trying to find talented C/C++ developers. It’s much easier to lift.”

There are also comments that:

George Ou : I’m a huge Rust fan, but what would you say to those who think there are safe versions of C and C++?

Ted Mielczarek : Either they’re lying to you, or what they’re suggesting requires effectively rewriting your entire codebase, so you’re better off using Rust.

Among the dissenting voices, a user with the ID  ionCube24  said that Mark Russinovich meant to blame the language more than the programmer. But the truth is “C++ is great, it’s just that a lot of people who use it (and other languages) basically don’t know how to program; switching languages ​​won’t fix that.”

Some people use their own practice as an example to show that Rust has limitations and does not solve all his problems. However, the netizen’s argument seems a bit untenable:

“It doesn’t have to solve all the problems to have a big impact.”

“Why ‘solve all your problems’ as a standard, does it require ‘solve all your problems’ to make a substantial difference in programming? In my opinion, want to ‘use it in all new projects’ this The standard is much lower than having ‘it solves all known problems’.”

Others lamented that  Mark Russinovich had changed and was no longer “cool”. There are also relatively sane claims , “Or better yet: stop hyping one programming language. Different tools are suitable for different problems. Rust is great, but it’s not a solution to all programming problems”.

Some even come up with what they think is a better alternative to C/C++, “When the GCed system language is acceptable, there will be no new C/C++ projects. Go, Nim and Crystal are all better than C/C++. Good choice. And Zig, which is doing some cool stuff, but isn’t as mature or popular as Rust.”

Currently, there are also related discussions on Hacker News  and  Reddit .