Rust: The Programming Language for Safety and Performance

Abstract: Rust is a young programming language gaining increased attention from software developers since it was introduced to the world by Mozilla in 2010. In this study, we attempt to answer several research questions. Does Rust deserve such increased attention? What is there in Rust that is attracting programmers to this new language? Safety and performance were among the very first promises of Rust, as was claimed by its early developers. Is Rust a safe language with high performance? Have these claims been achieved? To answer these questions, we surveyed and analyzed recent research on Rust and research that benchmarks Rust with other available prominent programming languages. The results show that Rust deserves the increased interest by programmers, and recent experimental results in benchmarking research show Rust's overall superiority over other well-established languages in terms of performance, safety, and security. Even though this study was not comprehensive (and more work must be done in this area), it informs the programming and research communities on the promising features of Rust as the language of choice for the future.