[smolder]

Safety (memory and otherwise) isn't new, but during my CS curriculum, including a course on programming language theory, there was little/no mention of techniques to ensure safety in the space between C++ and Java. I probably would have pointed toward formal verification if someone said they needed safety guarantees in the absence of garbage collection and a potentially slow or bloated runtime.

Though I believe there were some languages with features to that end, at least research languages, they weren't that well represented. I think Rust's presence brought attention to the possibilities there, and an increasing number of people see the value of investigating and developing that niche.