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A full series for carbon programming language covering basics , syntax, working examples and detailed concepts.
Google introduced Carbon language as the next generation programming language with a goal to replace C++ as a successor. It's an open source project still in experimental phase. Originally demonstrated by Chandler Carruth in CppNorth conference, Carb...
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Google introduced Carbon programming language with a modern language syntax to become a successor to C++. One of the challenges many beginner developers are facing is to run basic examples since the language is in a very early stage without even havi...
Google introduced Carbon language as the next generation programming language with a goal to replace C++ as a successor. It's an open source project still in experimental phase. Originally demonstrated by Chandler Carruth in CppNorth conference, Carb...
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The moment Google announced Carbon programming language with a goal to become a successor to C++, it brought a huge attention among Rust language communities with some of the questions like
Well, answering these questions may not be straight forward unless we do a detailed analysis between Rust and Carbon language.
In this article, we will go through the comparison between carbon language vs Rust and get some insights on above questions towards the end of this post. As we go through the post, we will also have a side by side comparison for carbon lang to rust for the listed properties.
Before getting started, if you are new to Carbon language, you can get started with video tutorials on this Carbon language youtube channel
or with these carbon resources : Carbon language documentation
Let's get started.
Here is the comparison across various properties for each of these languages.
Language Interoperability ( in short interop ) is the ability of one programming language to be able to interact with a different programming language as part of the same system. So code written in one language should be compatible with code written in another language.
As new languages evolve, having interoperability is a key element which can make new language adoption easy.
Comparing Carbon lang vs Rust interoperability with C++,
In simple terms, garbage collection is the process of cleaning up unused variables/references from program memory. As the programs execute, variables or objects that are no longer referenced in the code accumulate space on the heap. So cleaning up these resources is important for efficient memory management. Some languages (Eg: Java, python, golang ) perform garbage collection at run time using periodic background threads to deallocate space. Few other languages (Eg: Rust) achieve this by adding relevant cleanup code at compile time.
Garbage collection differences between Carbon lang and Rust are as follows:
All of this happens at compile time by adding relevant cleanup code. So there is no real garbage collection that happens at run time in Rust.
new and delete to allocate and deallocate the memory.heap.New and heap.Delete to allocate and deallocate memory. So GC can be achieved by manual memory allocation.Although this can have some cons in terms of unwanted memory errors this is a general usage pattern for low level languages. Some of the common errors are addressed using memory safety goals of carbon-lang.
Safety of a programming language involves secure mechanisms to safeguard against software bugs and security vulnerabilities. Some common safety mechanisms include Spatial Memory safety, Temporal memory safety, Type safety, Date race safety. You can read more about them here
As per Carbon docs,
The only well understood mechanism of achieving safety without giving up performance is compile-time safety. The leading example of how to achieve this is Rust.
So as the language evolves, compile time safety similar to Rust could be an option for Carbon.
unsafe keyword Rust doesn't allow you to perform unsafe code.Borrow checker is a mechanism that validates and helps you manage ownership rules in the code.
Package manager is a program / tool that can automate common development workflows like creating builds, download and install libraries or dependencies required for the codebase etc. They can interact with language specific compiler to perform builds. With package managers you can publish your own packages to a central repositories, which in-turn can be packaged into other projects easily. Some of the most frequently used package managers are maven, gradle, pip, cargo etc.
Cargo is the package manager for Rust. Every executable program or library in Rust is called a Crate. The central repository for Rust packages is crates.io . With Cargo you can download dependencies, compile, distribute packages with Crates package registry.
Looking at Carbon language goals, it is projected to include package manager as part of Carbon lang tools and ecosystem.
Infrastructure to enable package management and other library ecosystem support: The goal is to support what the ecosystem needs, regardless of the exact form this ends up taking. Source: Carbon language goals
While the exact timelines and details are not clear, keeping the current goals in mind, carbon language can include package manager as an improvement compared to C++.
Alright, keeping these differences in mind, let's try to answer the questions that we had in the beginning of this post.
As a quick recap to this article, here is the quick comparison between carbon language vs Rust.
Here is a quick side by side comparison of Carbon vs Rust.
| Property | Carbon Language | Rust |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | Performance, Interoperability, Migration from C++, | Concurrency, Reliability, Speed |
| Interoperability with C++ | Bidirectional interop supported | Not currently supported natively |
| Garbage collection | No GC. Manual memory allocation | No GC. Compile time memory safety |
| Safety | Performance is high priority compared to Safety | Safety is first citizen |
| Borrow checker | No borrow checker. Manual memory management | Borrow checker is the main secret sauce in Rust |
| Package manager | Plans to support package manager | Cargo is the packager manger for Rust |
| Embedded systems support | Yes. Plans to support it in future | Yes. Currently supported |
| Modern syntax | Yes | Yes |
To address C++ evolution needs, Rust is considered a decent language to be its successor. In fact Carbon language suggests using Rust if you can in the Why not Rust section.
If you want to use Rust, and it is technically and economically viable for your project, you should use Rust.
But Rust has its own advantages and disadvantages especially in terms of interoperability with C++. If the codebase is heavy on C++ , it's difficult to migrate to Rust as it is. The code might have to be re-written in Rust. But Carbon wants to excel in this area
Since Carbon is too early in its development we cannot exactly predict this. Based on a tiny survey (https://twitter.com/thetipseason/status/1553811165280477186) of this question "Do you think Carbon language will fully replace C++ in the future?"
53.3% voted No, 13.3% voted Yes , while 33.3% are neutral on this.
Things can change a lot while the language is still growing. We will cover this closely as things evolve, so make sure to subscribe to our Carbon language newsletter. What do you think the future of Carbon lang is ? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
Every language has its own pros and cons. But each language is designed with specific goals in mind. Both Carbon language and Rust lang has a great scope and applications for each of them can vary as things progress.
Learning new things are always fun. So give a try with each of these languages and explore around.
Hope this tutorial helps you get some idea about fundamental differences between Carbon and Rust. If you have any other thoughts in mind or if you have any other questions, drop your comment below. Also subscribe to our carbon language newsletter here to get latest language updates.
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