Statement on RustConf & Introspection

For Immediate Release.

May 30, 2023

Shepherd, ThePhD

3-Minute Read

On Friday, 26 May 2023, one of our collaborators — JeanHeyd “ThePhD” Meneide (AKA “Björkus Dorkus”) — was put in a position where he needed to consider withdrawing a talk related to our work on a possible future for compile-time reflection in the Rust Programming Language.

We agree with his assessment of the situation and support his withdrawal from RustConf 2023. We support JT’s resignation from the Rust Project and stand in solidarity with them. We carefully watched the events unfold over the (long) weekend, and into Tuesday, 30 May 2023.

Due to the actions of the Rust Project, we formally requested to withdraw from the Rust Foundation’s Grant program on the morning of Monday, 29 May 2023. The Rust Foundation has been nothing but courteous, forthcoming, and earnest in their communications, allowances, and offered help both before and during this time. However, our work is technical in nature and thus subject to the Rust Project.

We would like to make clear that this is only and solely because of the Rust Project, which is a separate entity that controls the technical space in and around the Rust Programming language and its flagship implementation rustc. It is intertwined with but not directly in control of RustConf or the Rust Foundation.

As the Rust Foundation has granted us leave from this project as of 20:19, Tuesday, 30 May 2023, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), we will not publish a “Final Report” on or after Wednesday, 5 July 2023 (the end of the term of the grant). All work has been terminated as of the release of this statement. While we will still be available to consult on Rust code and related subject material, we will be withdrawing our involvement in all Rust Project-related matters.

We thank Leah Silber for her honest and direct communication on behalf of RustConf with our collaborators. We applaud her swift, clear action. We appreciate the Rust Foundation for their grace and empathy through this process; we understand how hard it is to be put in this kind of situation.

Finally.

We thank JeanHeyd for trying to get Compile-Time Reflection for Rust off the ground. His excitement for the work was unparalleled. However, we will be shifting gears. If you have feedback we would prefer it be published publicly. This is because we will not be touching this work at this point and have nothing to share about future plans regarding it, nor about its progress.

We encourage individuals to, as was the purpose with the report’s initial publication, publish and discuss their feedback publicly so the entire ecosystem may yet find the right approach.