specification
gccrs
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- | GNU General Public License v3.0 only |
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specification
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Improving Interoperability Between Rust and C++
Many people misunderstand how software is written in regulated industries, and assume that a standard is necessary. In practice, this is not the case. Note that Ferrocene[1] had to produce a specification[2] in order to qualify the compiler. But there isn't a requirement that it must be a standard in any way, only that it describes how the Ferrocene compiler works. Nor that it be accepted by upstream.
1: https://ferrous-systems.com/blog/officially-qualified-ferroc...
2: https://github.com/ferrocene/specification
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Aerugo – RTOS for aerospace uses written in Rust
If by "no standard" you mean that there is no language specification for rust, then there is no standard. However, a language specification is not sufficient to verify program correctness, nor is it required.
A standard may (and the C standard for example does) leave parts of the behavior as "implementation specific" and there's quite a few edge cases - and that's not even talking about "undefined behavior", of which there is plenty. An even in the behavior that is neither implementation specific nor undefined you'll find enough rope to hang yourself (all the beautiful pointers).
On the other hand, the rust language - while having no formal spec - is fairly well described, in the form of its RFCs and testsuite. We (the ferrocene team) were able to derive a descriptive specification from the existing description fairly easily. So while there is no ISO standard, and no spec that would be sufficient to write a competing implementation, there is a description of what the language behaves like. You can read up on it at https://spec.ferrocene.dev/
As for verification of correct behavior of such a program, you can employ a host of different techniques depending on what your requirements are - down to verification of the produced bytecode by means of blackbox testing or other.
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Progress toward a GCC-based Rust compiler
They created a specification for Ferrocene because Rust does not yet have a language standard:
https://spec.ferrocene.dev/
>> But does the language need a standard?
Yes, Rust needs a standard.
>> And if so, then for what purpose?
For the same purpose that all standards have--to formally define it in writing.
Ferrocene's web site (https://ferrous-systems.com/ferrocene/) shows that it meets the ISO 26262 standard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_26262).
Why does ISO 26262 matter? What purpose does it serve? Couldn't a vehicle manufacturer just say "our vehicles are safe"? Which would you trust more: a vehicle that is verified to meet ISO 26262 standards, or a vehicle whose manufacturer tells you "it's safe"?
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Officially Qualified – Ferrocene
https://github.com/ferrocene/specification
They do say any differences between it and upstream behavior or documentation is a defect in the spec, not upstream. So it isn't authoritative. Unless we all decide it is.
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A Guide to Undefined Behavior in C and C++
>> The spec does not define the software. The software is as the software does. Having or not having a spec doesn't protect from bugs - people do.
>> What you're taking about is covering one's ass, not specification.
They are related.
In safety-critical software, bugs can cause people to die. Without a spec, no one will use Rust for safety critical software. It would be too risky and no company would accept that level of risk.
For example if software that controls an airplane is written in Rust and an error occurs during flight, what happens? The software can't just panic and crash or the airplane might crash.
The Ferrocene project (https://ferrous-systems.com/ferrocene/) is working on producing a safety-critical Rust specification (https://github.com/ferrocene/specification) because having a language specification matters for safety-critical work.
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A Decade of Rust, and Announcing Ferrocene
I'd like to clarify a little here: There's an ISO certifiation in here - but it's not an ISO standard for the language.
Essentially, the ISO 26262 certification verifies that the compiler release process conforms to a certain standard. It does not create an ISO standard for rust, not does it aim to. At part of the certification process we had to write a spec for the rust language, but it is a descriptive spec of how certain aspects of the rust language behave for one specific release of the compiler.
The certification builds on this to ensure that tests catch deviations from the spec, known problems are documented etc. So rust as a language is unaffected, as is the rust project. The spec is open source and might be useful to others, you can find it at https://spec.ferrocene.dev/
The target sectors for ISO 26262 and related industrial certification are clearly sectors that require such certification: automotive, medical, etc.
Ferrocene itself however, is not only the ISO certified downstream of the rust compiler, it also offers for example long term support and tracking of known issues which the rust project does not provide. This is also important for certain applications that do not strictly require certifications.
- Ferrocene Language Specification
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Rust has been forked to the Crab Language
>> Rust is defined by the implementation.
Hopefully not for long:
https://github.com/ferrocene/specification
https://ferrous-systems.com/blog/the-ferrocene-language-spec...
Hopefully Ferrocene can lead to Rust itself being standardized.
To me, it seems inevitable that there will be multiple implementations of Rust, especially if Rust continues to be more widely adopted and used in new domains.
I would also not be surprised if Rust were to adopt optional language extensions for specialized use cases, similar to Ada's language annexes:
http://www.ada-auth.org/standards/22rm/html/RM-1-1-2.html
Why? Because the Rust implementation you use for video game programming does not need all of the same features as the Rust implementation that you use for safety-critical embedded systems (for example: railroad control software).
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GCC 13 and the state of gccrs
That’s an easy enough problem to solve (though time consuming), and Ferrocene is working on it. Having >1 compiler implement the spec is just a human fuzz test that finds edge cases, and that’s a good thing.
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Rust in Automotive
I don't know what ISO-26262 requires, but for IEC-61508 only requires "The language should be fully and unambiguously defined." - which I think Ferrocene has taken a decent stab at with https://spec.ferrocene.dev , and an accompanying ISO standard is not a hard requirement.
gccrs
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FreeBSD evaluating Rust's adoption into base system
There is a Rust front-end for GCC that is under active development [1]. If the chip vendors are not willing to develop and upstream a LLVM back-end then they can feel free to start contributing to it.
[1] https://rust-gcc.github.io/
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Why do lifetimes need to be leaky?
That's why gccrs doesn't even consider lifetime checking a part of the language (they plan to use Polonius, too).
- Rust-GCC: GCC Front-End for Rust
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How hard would it be to port the Rust toolchain to a new non-POSIX OS written in Rust and get it to host its own development? What would that process entail?
There's ongoing work on a Rust front-end for GCC (https://github.com/Rust-GCC/gccrs). Bit barebones right now -- ie, even core doesn't compile -- but there's funding, demand, and regular progress, so it'll only get better from there. Once gccrs can compile core, it should be ready to compile most of Rust, and thus if you've taught the calling conventions for C to GCC, you're golden.
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How hard is it to write a front end for a more complex language like Rust or Kotlin?
I recommend checking out the GCC Rust frontend project.
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Rust contributions for Linux 6.4 are finally merged upstream!
That is what theyre refering to, yes. The GitHub is named https://github.com/Rust-GCC/gccrs
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GCC 13 and the State of Gccrs
- But this misses so much extra context information
3. Macro invocations there are really subtle rules on how you treat macro invocations such as this which is not documented at all https://github.com/Rust-GCC/gccrs/blob/master/gcc/rust/expan...
Some day I personally want to write a blog post about how complicated and under spec'd Rust is, then write one about the stuff i do like it such as iterators being part of libcore so i don't need reactive extensions.
- Break rust Easter Egg Merged Into gccrs
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Any alternate Rust compilers?
(Speaking of which, Rust-GCC (or gcc-rs or gccrs or whichever other of their names they decide is the primary one) isn't even going to be a complete C++ implementation. Their plan is to implement enough to compile Polonius (the NLL 2.0 borrow checker being developed in Rust for rustc) and then share that since borrow-checking isn't necessary for codegen... only to identify and reject invalid programs... making the C++ portion of it not that different in scope from mrustc.)
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Which programming languages, if all legacy code written in them was ported to a more modern language, would become extinct?
That bridge will be crossed with gccrs (compiling Rust with gcc directly, coming next month with GCC 13) and rust_codegen_gcc (rustc frontend, GCC backend, works now but just doesn’t yet have an “easy” setup)
What are some alternatives?
bc - An implementation of the POSIX bc calculator with GNU extensions and dc, moved away from GitHub. Finished, but well-maintained.
gcc-rust - a (WIP) Rust frontend for gcc / a gcc backend for rustc
stc - Speedy TypeScript type checker
rustc_codegen_gcc - libgccjit AOT codegen for rustc
crab - A community fork of a language named after a plant fungus. All of the memory-safe features you love, now with 100% less bureaucracy!
rustc_codegen_gcc - libgccjit AOT codegen for rustc
polonius - Defines the Rust borrow checker.
mold - Mold: A Modern Linker 🦠
windows-rs - Rust for Windows
rust - Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software.
compiler-team - A home for compiler team planning documents, meeting minutes, and other such things.
Rust-for-Linux - Adding support for the Rust language to the Linux kernel.