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0 pointschrismorgan8y ago0 comments

Point of curiosity: why did you go with C++ instead of Rust?

0 comments

V8's API is C++. While bindings exist in other languages, they don't always expose everything and don't always keep up with V8's frequent API changes. I felt it was essential that we bind closely to V8, being able to use all of its features, and that we be able to track closely to the latest stable release.

Also, I personally have decades of experience in C++ and wasn't sure this should be the project where I work on learning Rust.

That said, I love Rust and highly encourage more people to use it.

chrismorganOP8y ago

That’s about what I expected; thanks.

Just for reference for people reading this: rust-bindgen can produce bindings to C++ code these days, though that gets you an unsafe library; you’d want to build another thin layer on top of it to nail down the ownership semantics so that you can provide a safe interface.

comex8y ago

bindgen’s C++ support is better than it used to be, but still pretty limited, e.g. no support for inline functions, or their moral equivalent, methods defined within a class definition (which most C++ code has a ton of). And even if it works, to quote the documentation:

> using [C++] types in Rust will be nowhere near as nice as using them in C++. You will have to manually call constructors, destructors, overloaded operators, etc yourself.

source: https://github.com/rust-lang-nursery/rust-bindgen/blob/maste...

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steveklabnik8y ago

https://www.neon-bindings.com/ is written by Dave Herman, you might find it interesting to play with :)

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