[pjmlp]

Rust was helped by being a Mozilla language, and some of the personalities it had around it.

The big plus of the language was proving that Cyclone ideas to improve C, from AT&T research project were sound and could be made mainstream.

And now other languages are building on it as well, that is why Swift, Chapel, Haskell, OCaml, D are also having a go at a mix of linear types, affine types and effects.

However many folks credit Rust for type system features that are actually available in any ML derived language, or Ada/SPARK, so it isn't as if knowledge is that well spread.

[hnlmorg]

> Rust was helped by being a Mozilla language, and some of the personalities it had around it.

Indeed. But my point is there was already widespread movement behind building a programming language. So if Mozilla hadn’t taken charge then I’m certain someone will.

My point is that Rust was born from a wider desire for change rather than that desire existing because of Rust. Thus that desire would have been met in one form or another regardless of the invention of Rust.