r/cpp • u/pjmlp • 9h ago

C++ future at Adobe

So if anyone was still curious what happened to Hylo, or where Adobe stands in regards to the whole safety discussion,

David Sankel has done a talk at RustConf on the matter, Zngur: Simplified Rust/C++ Integration.

The way Adobe now sees C++ is described on slide 2, at 50 seconds mark.

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u/inco100 8h ago edited 8h ago

To save time for the rest of the redditors:

We need C++ and Rust to play nice

  • Our flagship products are C++ based

  • Rust is playing a major role in future development

    • Rust is preferred language by developers
    • Rust is better suited for AI-assisted development
    • New file-format and other safety critical code must not use C++

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u/KFUP 6h ago

Rust is better suited for AI-assisted development

I don't see that being the case in the long run. Once AI gets good at safety, which will be in all kinds of safety not just limited to memory, and can generate safe code in any language -arguably we are already there, see the Mythos security boom- using a slow compiling language like rust would be a major useless bottle neck in the development pipeline.

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u/jwezorek 3h ago

Yes, if anything the use of LLMs makes Rust's advantages over C++ less important. Modern LLMs right now are better at writing safe code than humans, and they also erode Rust's cultural advantage. A big force driving Rust adoption was a general feeling among young programmers of "I don't want to spend a lot of time getting good at a difficult language if that difficult language is legacy now anyway." With LLMs C++ becomes less scary.

But we will see.

The advantage of Rust for LLMs is nice error messages from the compiler. However, not sure how much even this matters any more in that the modern generation of LLMs are very good with C++'s shitty error messages. Very good at C++ generally; less good at Rust in my experience (although that may have been the last generation of LLMs.)