Building a Distributed System in Rust: Lessons Learned

Codethink successfully built a 3-node distributed system in Rust, learning valuable lessons in the process. They found that Rust did not slow down development time, thanks to its explicit error handling and the ability to propagate errors, making it easier to handle failures. Navigating async Rust was challenging but worth enduring for the sake of performance. However, they noted a gap in maturity between scientific/statistical libraries in Rust compared to Python and C++, which could hinder uptake within scientific communities. Overall, the project showcased Rust's strengths in building safe and reproducible software, while also highlighting areas for improvement in the language's ecosystem.

• Rust did not slow down development time
• Navigating async Rust was challenging but worth enduring for performance
• Gap in maturity between scientific/statistical libraries in Rust compared to Python and C++