Rust vs C++: Who will win the race for memory-safe programming?

Memory leaks and buffer overflows: C and C++ have always been good at poor memory management. Unfortunately, these errors often lead to security vulnerabilities – and lots of them at that: Microsoft and Google estimate that 70 percent of their security vulnerabilities can be traced back to memory management issues.

This is no different for other companies, and has been the case for years.

Rust: The solution for memory-safe programming?

So something should be done. And has been too. What programming languages haven’t already been invented to get the better of C and C++? But this just never really worked: Either the programming language needed a garbage collector, making it unusable for real-time applications. Or it left it out and therefore had the same memory management issues as C and C++.

But Rust now solves both: memory-safe and fast, and without garbage collection. The reason for this is a special type system: The compiler ensures that the programmer does not inadvertently insert pointers to nowhere. The result: significantly less time spent debugging.

For newcomers to Rust, this also means: Rust not only prevents memory errors, but also the originally desired functionality at the same time. It’s a steep learning curve until it finally compiles.

C++ and memory-safe programming: Is that even possible?

Memory-safe management is also possible with C++: If you use a new standard, observe the CPP Core Guidelines and make copious use of compiler’s warning flags, you will most likely no longer have any memory errors.

The C++ world provides several tools to support this: Valgrind, clang-tidy, clang-sanitizer and many more. They help to find problems automatically, whereas Rust programmers have to wrestle with their compiler on their own.

The most important advantages of Rust and C/C++

The future: Will Rust replace C++?

You can safely manage memory with C++. However, the experience with 70 percent of security vulnerabilities shows that you might be as well to leave it alone. Well-known companies and software projects are therefore switching to Rust or at least making an API available for it. The US government is even urging developers to ditch C and C++ completely.

So things aren’t looking good for C++, but will Rust actually be the replacement or just the next unsuccessful attempt to dethrone C++? My conclusion: Rust is superior to C, but a Rust compiler is not available for all platforms.

From a technical perspective, there is currently no clear winner compared to C++. Rust will probably fail because of a hang-up with recruiting personnel: at least three years of professional experience. But from where?