
Samsung joins Mozilla's quest for Rust - old-gregg
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3514_7-57577639/samsung-joins-mozillas-quest-for-rust/
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jacques_chester
The actual announcement isn't linked until the third paragraph:
[https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/04/03/mozilla-and-
samsung...](https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/04/03/mozilla-and-samsung-
collaborate-on-next-generation-web-browser-engine/)

Which was discussed here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5486495>

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wakeless
I can't help but think that there's some connection between this announcement
and Firefox OS. Purely speculation but I suspect that Samsung will be selling
cheaper phones running Firefox OS and over time move towards it for more and
more phones.

~~~
jbester
Allegedly, Samsung is pursuing tizen as a browser based os for their
devices[1]. This seems accelerated after the Motorola mobile acquisition. I'm
guessing they are looking at that as a technology to incorporate or a hedge.

[1] [http://m.cnet.com/news/samsung-to-release-high-end-tizen-
sma...](http://m.cnet.com/news/samsung-to-release-high-end-tizen-smartphone-
in-august/57574498)

~~~
tallowen
I can imagine that If Samsung continues to develop a browser based OS they
will likely do it in a way that inter-operates with the Firefox OS ecosystem.
By the time this would come to market there will likely be more apps in the
Firefox OS marketplace. It would solve the problem of new platforms having a
limited selection of apps.

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dbaupp
Samsung have actually been contributing (well, people employed by Samsung) for
a few months now: <http://ruststat.youknowone.org/#group-
Samsung%20Electronics>

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friendly_chap
Is this the same Samsung who is responsible for a series of extremely badly
designed and buggy software?

<http://amplicate.com/hate/kiosk>

~~~
hp50g
Yes my wife threw her galaxy ace out of the car window on the M1 the other day
because of a persistent lock up bug.

However I've got a Samsung 840 Pro SSD and I'm rather happy with it.

you win some, you lose some.

~~~
jacquesm
Don't you have a garbage can at home?

That's pretty irresponsible.

~~~
hp50g
Yes but:

a) we're not allowed to put phones in it due to the lithium content.

b) I doubt in the moment of anger at the piece of shit, taking it home and
politely disposing of it would have the same mental satisfaction as smashing
the bastard thing to bits on the motorway.

Irresponsible or not, humans aren't perfect unless they make condescending
remarks on the internet.

~~~
Adirael
It's easy to criticize from the couch, but throwing a phone from a car window
is VERY irresponsible. I doubt that in the moment of anger she looked first to
see if there was someone else on the road.

Being hit by a phone while riding a motorbike doesn't seem fun.

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rvasco
Rust and and <http://nimrod-code.org/> are my favorite new languages. Exciting
times :)

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fingerprinter
I've been following Rust for a bit, though not for anything serious as it
seems very nichey. I do hope it picks up some momentum, though.

I have to say, I've tried several times to move to Go and I've never fully
embraced Go's syntax. For some reason I'm able to wrap my head around Rust
much easier. I don't know the reason, but I can.

I wonder what the future holds for Rust. In a world with Go, C, C++11, Scala
and Obj C (among others), there is no shortage of languages it seems to
directly compete with and b/c of that, you have to wonder where it will be in
a year or 18 months.

~~~
coolsunglasses
Golang and Rust aren't made to solve the same problems. Go competes with Java
and Python, Rust with C++. (Not with C, not really.)

I don't really know why people keep comparing the two.

Go - networked services, cmd-line utilities (writing unixy tools in Go is a
joy), scalable scripts.

Rust - fast (bleeding edge) client software, anything that needs stricter
control of memory allocation semantics than most GC'd languages without going
whole-hog. I'd be curious to see a write-up on what making a game engine in
Rust would be like.

Another key aspect of Go that Rust wasn't made for, is that Go is MUCH more
focused on "developer experience" and project scalability. Everything is
standardized, compiles damn near instantly, etc.

Go solves Google problems (maintaining and developing on slow-compiling
C++/Java projects just to make a network service when Python is insufficient)

Rust solves Mozilla problems (complexity/performance/concurrency ramp up in
large C++ projects, usually client software that has to be maximally
performant)

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6ren
I know it's irrelevant, but I really can't get past the terrible name "Rust",
meaning corrosion. Why not call it "Ruined", "Broken", "Stupid" or "Bug-
ridden"? It's almost as bad as naming it for emasculated slaves.

~~~
coldtea
WTF are you talking about? Rust is a very nice name.

Short, nicely googlable in a programming context, and quite cool.

Not to mention "Corrosion" is also nice.

You seem to see it from the perspective of the corroded material, but try
seeing it from the perspective of the corrosive agent.

Then it's like naming a language "Acid" or "Explosion". Not to mention that
"Fire" is also an example of corrosion (oxidation).

Fire, Acid, ... Doesn't Rust sound cooler already in this company?

Plus, Rust, the language, like corrosion, is "close to the metal" (pun
intended).

~~~
rvasco
Yeah Rust is a really clever name imo

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ims
> "C++ is unsafe by design," he said. "It gets you down to the metal," a term
> that means that the code runs very fast because it can be read directly by
> the hardware, "but it is unsafe."

Hmm...

~~~
asharif
Ya I read that too. Unsafe just sounds like a word used by marketing fools to
sell sell sell. And C++ can be directly read by the hardware? I'm not even
sure what that means. Additionally, C++ has tons of abstractions. It's tons of
templates and OOP don't scream down to the metal and i also guess you can't
use threads in C++ and that's why it sucks so bad for multi cores. You learn
something new everyday.

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Stranger2013
They explained why C++ is bad. What is wrong with CLR and JVM and all the
languages for those virtual machines? What makes Rust _much_ better then
C#/F#/Nemerle for example?

~~~
coolsunglasses
Limited performance and control over memory semantics/management
(predictability is critical).

You can only take CLR and JVM so far for latency sensitive, low-overhead
client software.

Try writing a web browser in C#. We'll wait.

~~~
Stranger2013
Oh, so it is a language for writing browsers.

~~~
coolsunglasses
It's a systems language that happens to be designed around the performance and
memory constraints of writing browsers but with greater consideration given to
concurrency and memory safety than C/C++.

What do you think Mozilla does anyway?

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Stranger2013
My theory is that every mature technological company with a widely deployed
generic client (OS/browser) will have an ambition to build their own language
:).

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adrianlmm
Is this like a competence for Go?

