Rust 2020: Funding
👋 This page was last updated ~6 years ago. Just so you know.
Blog posts that praise Rust are many but funding is generally in short supply.
If even a small percentage of the money Rust saves companies was put back into the ecosystem it would help secure the future of the platform tremendously.
Multiple sources of funding
It is unreasonable going forward to expect the same handful of companies to provide all the funding.
Although Rust was born (or so I’m told) at Mozilla, it seems pretty clear that it has outgrown it significantly, and many big companies now benefit from Rust.
I hope they not only contribute code in the future but also funding.
Funding even if you don’t ask for it
Projects like rust-analyzer
cost money, they explained in great
detail. Those
should be funded.
Other projects have not explained it in great detail but nevertheless could use funding as well.
There are many people good at what they do but not especially good at getting funding. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get funding.
Goodwill does not pay the rent
If we want the wonderful folks who have been improving all aspects of the compiler, various libraries, infrastructure, docs, and I’m forgetting many, to stay and be happy and not burn out and leave for high-paying jobs, we need funding.
Being well-compensated (or even compensated at all) for work on open-source projects, does not make the work any less noble or open source.
Funding
Thanks for funding.
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Abstracting away correctness
I’ve been banging the same drum for years: APIs must be carefully designed.
This statement doesn’t resonate the same way with everyone. In order to really understand what I mean by “careful API design”, one has to have experienced both ends of the spectrum.
But there is a silver lining - once you have experienced “good design”, it’s really hard to go back to the other kind. Even after acknowledging that “good design” inevitably comes at a cost, whether it’s cognitive load, compile times, making hiring more challenging, etc.