Rust for Windows gets major update

Microsoft's Rust for Windows development team has announced that their latest update provides full consumption support, which means the language is now capable of calling any Windows API.

Rust for Windows is the latest language projection for Windows and joins others such as C++/WinRT. Earlier known as Rust/WinRT, Rust for Windows enables developers to interact with Windows Runtime (WinRT) APIs in ways natural to specific languages.

The developers have reached a major milestone with the v0.9 release, as app developers can now use it to call any Windows API directly.

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“Rust developers have access to the entire Windows API surface in a language-idiomatic way, allowing them to easily take advantage of the power and breadth of Windows development,” wrote Angela Zhang, Program Manager, Microsoft announcing the release.

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Rust for Windows is still considered a preview release and came into being only last year. It is Microsoft’s attempt to enable developers to use Rust for building desktop apps, store apps and device drivers.

The open source Rust language was originally developed by Mozilla, makers of the popular Firefox web browser, in 2010 and has been a developers’ favorite virtually since its inception.

The language is used by some of the biggest tech giants who’ve been supporting it through the years. Many of them including Microsoft, Google, Huawei, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and more recently Facebook, now work with each other in the recently created non-profit Rust Foundation.

Microsoft’s interest in the language stems from the fact that Rust is syntactically similar to C++, but comes with added protection against memory bugs. In fact, Google recently threw its weight behind the initiative to bring Rust to the Linux kernel for the same reasons.