The Rust team has published information regarding what to expect in Rust 2021, the third edition of the language, which they say they’ll release in October. They selected them from a number of proposals by the Rust 2021 Working Group.

Rust 2021 will introduce a new prelude to the standard library which adds std::convert::TryInto, std::convert::TryFrom, and std::iter::FromIterator. These were not added previously because they might break existing code, but a new edition is a chance to introduce such small changes, according to the Rust team.

Also in Rust 2021, the Cargo feature resolver introduced in Rust 1.51.0 will become the default. The new feature resolver no longer merges all requested features for crates that are depended on in multiple ways, the blog announcing Rust 1.51.0 says.

Other changes include the implementation of IntoIterator for arrays, closures only capturing the fields that they use, and a more consistent implementation of the panic!() macro. For full details of the planned changes in Rust 2021, see the Rust blog.

HAProxy supports service discovery of EC2 instances

HAProxy Data Plane API version 2.3 is now available, with expanded features in areas like service discovery, logging, and validation.

According to the HAProxy Blog, the most obvious change in this release is the command-line arguments needed to start the API now move into a YAML configuration file. This is because the API now expands beyond its initial role centred on generating an HAProxy configuration. It is becoming the interface between HAProxy and the services that surround it, so this was a necessary step in managing the complexity that stems from this.

This release also now supports service discovery of EC2 instances based on AWS instance tags. The API generates server lines in the HAProxy configuration from the instances it discovers. It also monitors the HAProxy configuration using Inotify, which means users can make manual changes to their HAProxy configuration. They can also use the Data Plane API simultaneously without worrying that the methods will conflict.

HAProxy Data Plane API version 2.3  also adds support for sending request logs over Syslog and allows the user to customise the format using Apache Log Format directives.

ServiceNow to acquire observability firm Lightstep

ServiceNow has said it plans to acquire Lightstep for its DevOps observability platform. The firm, which specialises in IT service management, IT operations management and digital workflows, will solidify its position by combining its platform with Lightstep’s advanced observability capabilities.

The IT services firm hopes the move will help place it as an option help DevOps engineers build, deploy, run and monitor cloud-native apps. The combination of ServiceNow and Lightstep will deliver operational insights so enterprises can more effectively use modern technology stacks, according to the firm.

ServiceNow said it expects the acquisition to be complete in Q2 2021. It did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

IBM shows off AI and Quantum advances

IBM unveiled a number of advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing at the company’s Think conference this week.

Project CodeNet, a large dataset of 14 million code samples, 500 million lines of code and 55 programming languages, is meant to boost the ability of AI to understand and translate code. It helps automatically translate one code into another, including legacy languages like COBOL.

Big Blue said it is also making it easier and faster for developers to use quantum software by introducing Qiskit Runtime, a containerised service for quantum computers. Improvements in both the software and processor performance allow Qiskit Runtime to boost the speeds of quantum circuits by 120 times, according to IBM.

AWS releases SaaS Boost as an open source project

Amazon’s cloud arm has hit go on SaaS Boost, an open source tool to help developers migrate existing solutions to AWS under a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model.

The cloud firm’s SaaS Boost takes on the heavy work of delivering a SaaS offering by guiding software builders through the migration and operational processes, making the move to SaaS as frictionless as possible, according to AWS. It provides developers with ready-to-use core elements such as deployment automation, analytics and dashboards, billing, and metering.

AWS SaaS Boost uses the Apache-2.0 license, so you can customise and redistribute the code to meet businesses requirements, AWS says. The code is publicly available on GitHub.