The Rust update makes Rust faster, but banks still love C++
The programming language Rust has a cult following in the finance industry. Some tout it as a C++ killer, but that might be wishful thinking. Rust ranks 19th on the TIOBE index; C++ is regularly in the top four.
“Rust isn’t used much in finance now, except for in crypto firms." says Joshua Friedman, a recruiter who covers technology hiring at GQR Global Markets in New York, "There’s a feeling of ‘Why gut everything just to use the new version of a tech stack?’"
Most prefer C++ when it comes to compiled languages, given its effectiveness operating so close to the hardware at high speed. A new update from the Rust Release Team intends to change that.
The change stabilizes the sparse protocol for cargo in the crates.io registry. The previous version of Rust "hit scaling limitations, with noticeable delays while updating that repository." The changes should substantially boost performance speed "as it will only download information about the subset of crates that you actually use."
Another welcome change is the addition of the pin! macro. One Reddit user says it's "pretty nice; it means a lot of async crates can now remove all of their unsafe code."
Don't expect this release to completely change the landscape, but it'll certainly make things better for Rust coders. The changes are small, but they are meaningful.
C++ has changes coming too. C++23, the latest major tri-yearly release was recently declared feature complete. The release is less about speed, and more about usability. C++ is slowly accumulating features of a scripting language rather than a complex programming language as it becomes easier to use preexisting code libraries.
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