[pjmlp]

I appreciate Rust for making affine types mainstream, and having at least the C++ community start caring about security, even if half hearted.

However I share your conclusion, outside scenarios where having automated resource management as the main approach is either technically impossible, or a waste of time trying to change pervasive culture, I don't see much need for Rust.

In fact those that write comments about wanting a Rust but without borrow checker, the answer already exists.

[Darmani]

I think Rust would be fine for application code if it kept the borrow checker, but had greater allowance for dynamically-sized variables, or even garbage collection. The reason calling things through an interface is so tough in Rust is because doing so requires having a pointer to a value of unknown size, which involves either heap allocation or alloca(), neither of which are very happy in Rust. Many of the other things I complained about are also downstream of this decision. Affine types are useful both in high-level state management as well as in low-level memory management. But it's Rust's focus on static memory layout that really cements it as a low-level systems language, not its inclusion of borrowing.

Way back as an undergrad in 2011, I contributed to Plaid, a JVM language whose main feature is based on affine and linear types. I'm one of the very few people in the world who knew what borrowing is before Rust had it. So I know first-hand that borrow-checking is perfectly compatible with garbage collection.

[pjmlp]

Exactly, and that is why after Rust's break into mainstream, several garbage collected languages are trying to mix advanced type systems with their approach to garbage collection (GC, RC, a mix of both, whatever).

This is also not strange for those in the Rust community with type systems experience, hence the Roadmap 2026 proposals for a more ergonomic experience.

Thus we have Linear Haskell, Swift 6 ownership, D ownership, Koka, Hylo, Chapel, OxCaml, Scala Capabilities, Ada/SPARK proofs, Idris, F*, Dafny,....

[Darmani]

Interesting. But when I search `"roadmap 2026" rust`, I only get results for the video game.

Am familiar with Linear Haskell (and actually went on a walk through Tokyo with one of the authors just a few months ago). IIRC: still no resources allocated to add the things that would actually make it useful. Had not been aware of most of those, except the dependently-typed ones. Cool to know about the others. Yay linear types becoming known.

You seem interesting, and I'm curious about your background now. All I can find so far is that you're from Europe and used to lead C++ in some major corporation.

[pjmlp]

I wish, I got the luck to do some C++ at CERN and Nokia Networks, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Just happen to be a nerd with interests across systems programming, languages, graphics, that rather reads books and papers than watching dull TV shows.

Day job is boring enterprise consulting across the usual stacks you might imagine.

Here is the roadmap.

https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-project-goals/2026/goals.ht...

[Darmani]

Sounds like a fun life :)

Have found in that roadmap things that would help me personally like making async functions dyn-compatible. Have not found the deeper stuff I thought you were hinting at.

Last year, I wanted to use the 5- line Result.flatten function, abs then found it had been stuck in experimental....for 5 years. That left me with no confidence of the language's dev velocity.

[sn9]

To disambiguate search results in the future, I've had great luck appending "lang" like so: "roadmap 2026 rust lang".