And as a bonus they're building all this in Rust, probably the first language to seriously compete with C++ (for the things C++ is good at, like web browsers and game engines, where complexity and speed rule out most other languages).
Not sure if you have noticed but... you are agreeing to a comment that celebrates Mozilla focusing in, and only in, its core competency and adding that they used a new language they created :-)
Browsers are already highly specialized and complex VMs. If you have the ability to build a browser and work on all parts of it, you have the ability to create new languages.
So creating a new language is not at all that far away from their core competency. They are also working in a space where they have a strong need for a good systems language, so the motivation is there as well.
I think them building it in rust is a good thing. But rust is a mozilla project so its not as though theyre doing people favors. What it certainly does is showcase the strength of the language considering they have proven to be so badass
That's sort of what I meant to get at - building Rust is a huge service to other people, and an important one too. Servo is showing that they're really putting the effort into optimizing it and making things work as best as possible.
> probably the first language to seriously compete with C++
How about Object Pascal? I think Object Pascal is a better C++ than C++. It's too bad it isn't more widely used. Here are a couple of interesting perspectives from people who have done some recent development with Object Pascal:
I think the comment isn't really about the technical merits, but more about the fact that Rust has gotten some major traction, not just in Mozilla but elsewhere.
Where else? Rust usage is quite small at the moment relative to Object Pascal and definitely to C++. The new language that's rapidly gaining marketshare is Swift, mostly because Apple's pushing it.
I could only find two Rust repositories on their github page, both of which are library bindings forked from other projects, so that seems to indicate some Rust usage. But then again there are more Haskell repositories than Rust repositories: https://github.com/dropbox
