Looking at LLVM build times I seriously believe that C would have been the better choice :/ (it wouldn't be a problem if LLVM wouldn't be the base for so many other projects)
replySame for the Metal shading language. C++ adds exactly nothing useful to a shading language over a C dialect that's extended with vector and matrix math types (at least they didn't pick ObjC or Swift though).
CUDA, SYSCL, HLSL evolution roadmap, and Khronos future for Vulkan beg to differ with your opinion.
replyYes, inertia. If those projects started today, they would likely choose rust.
replyWhy isn't rustc using Cranelift then?
replyI can think a few reasons:
reply- Cranelift applies less optimizations in exchange for faster compilation times, because it was developed to compile WASM (wasmtime), but turns out that is good enough for Rust debug builds.
- Cranelift does not support the wide range of platforms (AFAIK just X86_64 and some ARM targets)
So it isn't just a matter of "they would use Rust instead".
replyThere is a whole ecosystem of contributions across the globe and the lingua franca used by those contributors.