This issue is all about the topic of concurrency. Concurrent and asynchronous programs and runtimes support high-throughput systems by optimally utilizing hardware resources. On the other hand, writing concurrent programs is more difficult because of pitfalls like race conditions and deadlocks. We’re going to dive into language features and libraries that help mitigate these issues and boost developer productivity. And as a bonus, let’s also have a look at F# from a Rust developer’s perspective.

Six Ways to Handle Concurrency in the JVM

This article provides a good summary of different approaches to handling concurrent operations in JVM languages like Java, Kotlin and Scala – from using bare threads all the way to lazy IO monads on custom fiber runtime in the Cats Effect library, and Kotlin’s coroutines implementation with suspendable functions. Not to mention Akka’s actor model implementation, and the newest kid on the block: Java Virtual Threads.

Mastering Kotlin Coroutines: Choosing Between Default and IO Dispatchers for Optimal Performance

If Kotlin coroutines have caught your attention, here’s an article describing two options when choosing a dispatcher and thread pool for running the coroutine code. It’s useful to understand whether the logic involves CPU or IO bound tasks. Choosing the correct dispatcher can have an effect on performance by making better use of available resources.

Keyword Generics Initiative

This article is a little older, but the initiative is ongoing. The Rust team wants to explore the idea of parametrizing behavior, calling it Keyword Generics. The idea is that a function can be generic over its capabilities. This sounds a bit like an effect system, but closer to Unison’s Abilities or Scala’s experimental capabilities. It would be interesting to read a thorough comparison of these implementations.

F# is the .NET Rust

This article compares the similarities and differences between the Rust and F# programming languages from syntax, runtime and tooling perspectives. While in some ways they may seem quite different, they also have a lot in common. It’s worth adding that F# is very close to other languages with roots in the ML family such as Haskel, Elm or Scala. If you like functional programming but are tied to the .NET ecosystem, that’s your spot.