Why not just use C and C++? The reason is security and memory-related bugs, said Lerche, quoting research that “70 per cent of all high severity security vulnerabilities in software in C and C++ are due to [lack of] memory safety.”

Rust is revolutionary, he said, because “Rust is the first mainstream programming language that is efficient while maintaining memory safety.” Lerche explained how Rust achieves memory safety by using the idea of ownership, based on a concept called Affine logic, where each object has one and only one owner at a time.

Ownership rules are checked at compile time, so there is no runtime overhead. Concurrency too is easier and safer in Rust than in C or C++, leading to further performance and efficiency gains. //

The problem is that coding in Rust is hard. One reason why languages like Java, JavaScript, and Python have seen such wide adoption is that programmers can become productive more quickly.

This then is the elephant in the room, “the famous learning curve,” said Miller. In a recent survey, “of the engineers who said they were no longer using the language, 55 per cent cited learning and productivity as their reason for abandoning it. Experienced engineers require three to six months of study supported by a subject matter expert before they are productive with the language.”