The Rust Influx
For years, Rust was considered a “niche” language for low-level systems programming. But lately, something strange has been happening: web developers are jumping on the Rust bandwagon.
From Next.js’s SWC compiler to the Deno and Bun runtimes, Rust is at the heart of the latest and greatest web tools.
Why Rust for Web?
- Memory Safety: No more “segfaults” or “null pointer exceptions.” Rust’s ownership model catches these at compile time.
- Performance: Rust is as fast as C and C++, making it ideal for high-performance backend services.
- WebAssembly (Wasm): Rust has first-class support for compiling to Wasm, allowing you to run high-performance code directly in the browser.
The Tooling Transformation
Web development tooling is being rewritten. webpack is being replaced by Turbopack (Rust), and Babel is being replaced by SWC (Rust). The result? Build times are 10-100x faster.
// A simple Rust function to be called from the frontend via Wasm
#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn perform_complex_calc(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 {
a * b + (a - b).abs()
}How to Get Started
If you’re a web developer, you don’t need to rewrite your entire stack in Rust. Start small:
- Try building a CLI tool with clap.
- Write a performance-critical function in Rust and import it into your JS project via Wasm.
- Explore Poem or Axum for high-performance backend APIs.
Conclusion
Rust is no longer just for system engineers. It’s a powerful tool in every modern web developer’s arsenal. Whether it’s for faster build tools or safer backend services, Rust is here to stay.
