Development on Microsoft's software has taken a radical turn recently. Reports in this direction speak rather of a flashy change in how the company receives C and C++ programming languages for new projects. It's possible that by 2030, Microsoft will start phasing out its large C/C++ codebases for various but no less important reasons such as security issues and facilitating current software architecture.
Who does Microsoft change to the other side of the line away from C and C++?
For decades, it has made C and C++ the skeleton for Windows, Azure, Office, and other flagship products. Most glaring weaknesses in these languages are memory safety. Buffer overflows, use-after-free vulnerabilities, and dangling pointers have been sources of many cyberattacks.
According to internal statistics, a large portion of security vulnerability in its software stems from unsafe memory coding. Therefore, Microsoft is switching to memory-safe programming languages.
What language will replace C/C++?
The leading contender is Rust programming language. Rust was born so that memory safety could be achieved with performance that can compete against C/C++. Microsoft has already implemented:
* The inclusion of Rust for certain areas of the Windows kernel
* Testing of Rust in Azure and security-critical components
* NET and other tool chains will lay emphasis on memory safe code
This, however, does not mean that millions of lines of C/C++ will disappear suddenly. Instead, it will be gradual.
Is this 2030 feasible?
To rewrite the entire legacy C/C++ code base is perhaps one of the toughest and most time-consuming tasks. Such operating systems as Windows probably contain billions of lines of code. Thus, many see 2030 as promising a point of strategy - specific new projects will then be written in memory-safe languages instead of C/C++.
What may the impact be?
* Software will be safer.
* The risks for cyber-attack will be reduced.
* This should create a huge interest in Rust and other newer programming languages among the beginners who will read this article.
* Future Windows and Microsoft products will be more stable.
Conclusion
Indeed, it is not going to wake up one day and erase all codes relating to C and C++ from the existence of humanity. However, near certain long-term migration towards memory-safe languages can now be anticipated. By 2030, according to many technology experts, is likely the milestone.
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