Rustgo: Calling Rust from Go with near-zero overhead

The article discusses an experiment to call Rust code from Go with minimal overhead, aiming to replace assembly code in performance-critical applications. The author highlights Rust's advantages, such as being more readable than assembly while still allowing for optimizations. The challenge lies in Go's Foreign Function Interface (cgo), which, while enabling calls to C functions, incurs significant performance costs that are unsuitable for small, frequently called functions.

The proposed solution involves linking Rust code directly into Go programs, treating it similarly to assembly. The author outlines the process of compiling Rust into a static library and linking it with Go using the system linker. This method avoids the overhead associated with cgo, allowing for more efficient function calls.

To successfully call Rust functions from Go, the author explains the need to understand calling conventions for both languages. The Go calling convention is mostly undocumented, but the author provides insights into how arguments and return values are managed during function calls. The article concludes with a practical example of invoking a Rust function from Go, demonstrating the potential for high-performance inter-language calls without the complexity and overhead of cgo. The experiment illustrates the feasibility of integrating Rust into Go applications, leveraging Rust's performance benefits while maintaining Go's usability.