Vision²

But there are a lot of details to work out.

And a lot of stakeholders, each arguing for something different.

Me, at the time:

Me, a few days later:

Why was it hard?

• What are the most imp't problems?
• Complex space, too much for one person
• Little consensus, distinct subcommunities

What are the most imp't problems?

• Status quo narratives help you understand

Complex, too much for one person

• Survey and assemble the bigger picture
• Engage stakeholders directly
  • let them tell us what's important

Little consensus

• Lift the focus from the details to the impact

Active projects of a certain scope develop a vision doc

• Async
  • (workin' on it…)
• Const generics and const evaluation
  • (workin' on it…)
• Embedded?
• Error handling?
• FFI and interop?

People can use vision docs to see where Rust is going

"Ah, I can't wait for that version of Rust."

Team members can use vision docs to place an RFC in context

"OK, I see what we're trying to do and how this gets us there."

SO BEAUTIFUL

Name	Bg	Has	Wants
Alan	GC'd	Safety	Perf.
Grace	C++	Perf.	Safety
Niklaus	New	Excitement	Community
Barbara	Rust	…it all!	Fits well

Goal for characters, projects

Help us quickly assess if we're still aligned with core values of Rust.

"But wait, if the Widget is Send, we just messed it up for Grace!"

Alan tries to create the async trait:

trait HttpClient {
    async fn perform(request: Request) -> Response;
}

When he tries to compile this, he gets the error:

--> src/lib.rs:2:5
  |
2 |     async fn perform(request: Request) -> Response;
  |     -----^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  |     |
  |     `async` because of this
  |
  = note: `async` trait functions are not currently supported
  = note: consider using the `async-trait` crate: https://crates.io/crates/async-trait

Story goes on to tell:

• How he tries the async-trait crate
• Learns how it works
• Tries to support a #[no_std] environment
  • …and ultimately fails

Key points about status quo

• Describe current experience in narrative form
• Include specific details – stay true to life!
• If covering controversial things, stick to the facts, describe what character experiences
• Can involve multiple characters

Don't skip the status quo

Status quo writing sessions

Organizing group writing sessions can be really fun:

• One person driving, shared hackmd
• Other people sharing their experiences
• Start with rough overview with major points
• Try to knit them together into a story
• If you get stuck, ask someone:
  • What did you do then?

Missing step: organizing status quo stories

• Group things into the biggest problems
• Brainstorm the possible solutions to those problems
  • without diving into too many details

Explore the space

• Not sure how something should be?
• Write it out multiple ways!
• Writing a story is a fast way to explore the future

Don't get too hung up in the how

• Focus on the user experience
• We can figure out how to do it
  • or something that feels similar

Expect to get it wrong

Revisit the shiny future as we make progress and learn new things