Rust vs Dart – Which is More Likely to Replace C++?

Dennis M Ritchie developed C in the year 1972 as a successor of the B language. And it is widely used in the system as well as application programming. Its popularity has grown tremendously these years and now an object-oriented language derivative from C called C++ is becoming mature and stable programming language.

Rust is a system-level programming language that stand close to C++ in terms of syntax,but offers high speed and memory safety. On the other hand, Dart is an object-oriented, web-based programming language and is enriched with the features of a classical programming language where it runs on both server and browser. Now that the two superheroes have met each other, let’s hunt for their similarities and overlaps to decide who is going to dominate the C++ world.

Difference Between Rust and Dart

1. Syntax: Let’s understand the basic syntactical differences by writing a simple code.

C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {

    cout<<"Welcome to GFG!";
    return 0;
}

Dart

void main() {
  print('Welcome to GFG!');
}

Similarly, to print the same code in rust:

fn main() {
   println!("Welcome to GFG!");

}

Output: Welcome to GFG!

2. Applications

Rust is a memory-efficient and safe language with no overhead of runtime and garbage collection. It can be called a long-awaited successor of C++. And thus it’s used more in the production industry. It can also be integrated into many other programming languages. Talking about C++, it is very good at game development. It is powerful and is capable of interacting with the applications that use Docker, MongoDB, etc. But Dart itself is a web-based programming language with splendid libraries available. The addition of new features has enabled the increase of Flutter users and thereby Dart users. Therefore C++ can face a slight competition in this field.

3. Speed

C++ is a swift language compared to interpreted languages like Python and Java. This is one reason that has made it wide famous in competitive programming, where TLE(Time Limit Extended) is one common error found. Compiler technology has enabled this characteristic to the language. But still ineptly written code can run slow. Rust too is terribly fast, secure, and reasonable language stuffed with simple programming syntax. Whereas Dart is a flexible language that is easily shipped from one platform to another. It involves both compiler and interpreter technology and is speedier but not up to the rank of C++ and Rust.

4. Popularity

Cross-platform application development using Flutter has been growing considerably and has increased the number of Dart users. Also, it’s alterability and adaptability have accelerated its usage in the browser and server-side programming too. Rust can power performance-related services, can be integrated with other languages, and also uses void garbage collection. Thus it does not permit null pointers, dangling pointers, or data races in safe code. Having a syntax similar to C++, it was easy to learn and get adapted to the language. The availability of surplus libraries cheat codes and functions have not replaced the position of the C++ language from the hearts of programmers.

Conclusion:

Rust is a language that can be obviously called a ‘game-changer in the programming world’ where it avoids the problems that gnaws other garbage collectible languages like Golang, Java etc. Rust competes very well in performance and efficiency with the C and C++ world because it has made the debugging and problem solving easier. It can run on embedded devices and has the potential to even tickle the old Fortran language. Dart is a client-optimized language used in API development and in  building mobile applications that require complex logic. It is in reality a concise and expressive language and is also more productive. So it is hard to decide on which language will bestride the other.