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The Tor Project is switching to Rust

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348 points giuliomagnifico | 6 comments | 12 Dec 25 12:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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giancarlostoro ◴[12 Dec 25 14:40 UTC] No.46244569[source]▶
I still wish Mozilla had kept oxidizing Firefox. It would have been a net positive for Rust itself.
replies(3): >>46244641 #>>46244668 #>>46245780 #
anonnon ◴[12 Dec 25 14:48 UTC] No.46244641[source]▶
Clearly, the fact that Servo failed must be indicative of shortcomings in Mozilla itself, and not Rust the language, its ecosystem, or its users.
replies(4): >>46244809 #>>46244842 #>>46244921 #>>46245463 #
udhghhe ◴[12 Dec 25 16:09 UTC] No.46245463[source]▶
There are architectural concerns. Even when Rust proponents and cultists try to harass unrelated projects into submission, as they are wont to do.

https://github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/discussions/411

replies(1): >>46247004 #
notnullorvoid ◴[12 Dec 25 18:23 UTC] No.46247004[source]▶
TS decision to choose Go was primarily, because they could take the existing code and do a near 1-1 translation. You can frame that as an architectural concern, but it's really only one that applies when your attempting to migrate an existing program to a new language. The Go rewrite has some negative outcomes as well, most concerning is the performance of the WASM builds is worse than the old JS/TS version.

A TS compiler from scratch built in Rust would be fine.

> cultists

The cult is in your imagination.

replies(1): >>46248069 #
1. hu3 ◴[12 Dec 25 19:54 UTC] No.46248069[source]▶
Not your parent commenter but:

> You can frame that as an architectural concern...

"Go also offers excellent control of memory layout and allocation (both on an object and field level) without requiring that the entire codebase continually concern itself with memory management."

"The TypeScript compiler's move to Go was influenced by specific technical requirements, such as the need for structural compatibility with the existing JavaScript-based codebase, ease of memory management, and the ability to handle complex graph processing efficiently. "

If memory management and ability to handle complex graph processing efficiently isn't related to architecture to you I don't know what to tell you.

[0] https://github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/discussions/411

> The cult is in your imagination.

CTRL+F "rust" on the Go issue and see how many results you get. 31 for me and that's before expanding spam.

replies(1): >>46249974 #
2. notnullorvoid ◴[12 Dec 25 22:46 UTC] No.46249974[source]▶
> If memory management and ability to handle complex graph processing efficiently isn't related to architecture to you I don't know what to tell you.

Rust can do complex graph processing, as well as efficient easy memory management, but it's going to do it in a different structure than a GCed lang would. Hence my statement that 1 to 1 translation was the primary factor.

> CTRL+F "rust" on the Go issue and see how many results you get.

Yes and so what? There's 35 for .NET or 74 for C#, yet you don't see people claiming the C# cult was harassing the TS team.

replies(1): >>46253550 #
3. hu3 ◴[13 Dec 25 10:26 UTC] No.46253550[source]▶
Obviously, C# is one of Microsoft's flagship language along with TypeScript.

So it's expected to be frequently mentioned there.

replies(1): >>46255139 #
4. notnullorvoid ◴[13 Dec 25 15:21 UTC] No.46255139{3}[source]▶
Sure, and Rust is the most used language for modern TS/JS tooling, outside of TS/JS. There would have been substantial ecosystem benefits had Rust been chosen.
replies(1): >>46261272 #
5. hu3 ◴[14 Dec 25 06:53 UTC] No.46261272{4}[source]▶
Do you have a source for that?

Because esbuild is Go. tac was TypeScript and will be Go. Bun is Zig.

Come to think of it. I don't use a single Rust tool for the web. node is c++. deno breaks too much.

So, do you have a source for your claim?

replies(1): >>46263401 #
6. notnullorvoid ◴[14 Dec 25 14:48 UTC] No.46263401{5}[source]▶
Transpilers: SWC, Oxc Linters/Formatters: DPrint, deno lint, Biome, Oxlint, Oxfmt Bundlers: Rolldown (replacing esbuild in Vite), Rspack, Turbopack, and certain components of Parcel

All built with Rust