4 ms·

I don't believe that it being written in Rust is a feature. The language it's written in is just an implementation detail.

by _RPM 10y ago

mblode 10y ago
I think it definitely would be considered a feature. For example Atom, Brackets, and Visual Studio Code were all written in JS with CSS and HTML and they all for the most part have fairly poor performance. The fact that rust is a highly performant language and is also relatively higher level than C for example, it offers a benefit for the user.
groovy2shoes 10y ago
This is really common among open source projects. I frequently come across feature lists containing "Written in X" for many different values of X. In fact, was just complaining about it to a friend of mine just last night. He pointed out that for open source projects, it really can be a feature: when attracting contributors, the source language is important. It's also important for people who just want to study the source for some reason or another. It can also be an indicator for how readily portable it is: a program written in C is going to be much more easily ported than one written in Visual Basic, for example.
- sbuttgereit 10y ago
  Yes. I'm not so interested in a new editor unless it's very stand out (and I'm sure this project is good)... but I do have an interest in Rust; in particular in how it's being used and the different kinds of software it's showing up in. It may be a good example of programming that's worth reviewing as I learn or it may just help provide a sense in the kind of community that's growing (or not) around something that's relatively new (in some stable status at least) like Rust. Had it not said "Rust" in the title... I may well have not bothered to look at this at all.
Joof 10y ago
As another poster said, it's open source and written for fellow hackers, so language is a feature. Imagine if emacs was written purely in C++.
- dman 10y ago
  If emacs had identical features in its C++ form what difference would it make to end users that C++ was used?
  - Joof 10y ago
    They would be likely to contribute in different ways and it might not have matured or gained traction in the first place. Since the end-users are also potential developers, it's a feature to be in lisp and not C++. Whether rust is beneficial to a text editor project is up for debate (my guess is no), but I agree that language is a feature of an open source project in the types and quantity of contributers it attracts.
threatofrain 10y ago
I don't think Rust is the immediate feature, but an attempt to advertise as a predictor of features. Whether one wishes to gamble with these heuristics as part of their decision-making is up to them. The choice to start a new editor in Rust signals to me that this editor won't have as much trouble optimizing for speed as other recent editors, and it also signals that it may be able to hook on to recent Rust energy to get collaborators. To the end user, that potentially means speed and longevity.
coldtea 10y ago
Might be an implementation detail for the end user, but its important aspect of the software for the developer community, people wanting to embed the editor, plugin authors and many others...
yarrel 10y ago
Rust is a cult though. This will get upvotes that just "re-implementation of non-Emacs text editor" wouldn't.
- Ygg2 10y ago
  What makes you think Rust is a cult? The implementation of Xi, has some novel things that might interest Rust programmers, like a practical Rope implementation, which are quite rare in Rust and often abandoned.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- akadien 10y ago
  I just came from a project where Rust was a cult. Everything was rewritten in Rust even though much of the C code base worked very well. Because Rust! I was interested in Rust before, but it now seems like Rust programmers are like vegans (I have to hear about it every 10 minutes.)
  - 59nadir 10y ago
    > I just came from a project where Rust was a cult. Everything was rewritten in Rust even though much of the C code base worked very well. Because Rust! I'm not saying anything specifically about this case, because clearly the information here is very limited, but there is a case to be made for rewriting projects that work to increase maintainability in the future. Most newer languages do have an edge in this department, as they are more conscious of those issues. There is sometimes the benefit of a rewrite regardless of language, as well; cleaning stuff up, organizing stuff better because you now know better, etc..
tcard 10y ago
It's not a feature for a user. If you're sharing a piece of code for the hacker (as in _Hacker_ News) community to check out, the language it's written in is definitely relevant.

I don't believe that it being written in Rust is a feature. The language it's written in is just an implementation detail.

by _RPM 10y ago

I don't believe that it being written in Rust is a feature. The language it's written in is just an implementation detail.

mblode 10y ago

I think it definitely would be considered a feature. For example Atom, Brackets, and Visual Studio Code were all written in JS with CSS and HTML and they all for the most part have fairly poor performance. The fact that rust is a highly performant language and is also relatively higher level than C for example, it offers a benefit for the user.

groovy2shoes 10y ago

This is really common among open source projects. I frequently come across feature lists containing "Written in X" for many different values of X. In fact, was just complaining about it to a friend of mine just last night. He pointed out that for open source projects, it really can be a feature: when attracting contributors, the source language is important. It's also important for people who just want to study the source for some reason or another. It can also be an indicator for how readily portable it is: a program written in C is going to be much more easily ported than one written in Visual Basic, for example.

sbuttgereit 10y ago
Yes. I'm not so interested in a new editor unless it's very stand out (and I'm sure this project is good)... but I do have an interest in Rust; in particular in how it's being used and the different kinds of software it's showing up in. It may be a good example of programming that's worth reviewing as I learn or it may just help provide a sense in the kind of community that's growing (or not) around something that's relatively new (in some stable status at least) like Rust. Had it not said "Rust" in the title... I may well have not bothered to look at this at all.

Joof 10y ago

As another poster said, it's open source and written for fellow hackers, so language is a feature. Imagine if emacs was written purely in C++.

dman 10y ago
If emacs had identical features in its C++ form what difference would it make to end users that C++ was used?
- Joof 10y ago
  They would be likely to contribute in different ways and it might not have matured or gained traction in the first place. Since the end-users are also potential developers, it's a feature to be in lisp and not C++. Whether rust is beneficial to a text editor project is up for debate (my guess is no), but I agree that language is a feature of an open source project in the types and quantity of contributers it attracts.

threatofrain 10y ago

I don't think Rust is the immediate feature, but an attempt to advertise as a predictor of features. Whether one wishes to gamble with these heuristics as part of their decision-making is up to them. The choice to start a new editor in Rust signals to me that this editor won't have as much trouble optimizing for speed as other recent editors, and it also signals that it may be able to hook on to recent Rust energy to get collaborators. To the end user, that potentially means speed and longevity.

coldtea 10y ago

Might be an implementation detail for the end user, but its important aspect of the software for the developer community, people wanting to embed the editor, plugin authors and many others...

yarrel 10y ago

Rust is a cult though. This will get upvotes that just "re-implementation of non-Emacs text editor" wouldn't.

Ygg2 10y ago
What makes you think Rust is a cult? The implementation of Xi, has some novel things that might interest Rust programmers, like a practical Rope implementation, which are quite rare in Rust and often abandoned.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
akadien 10y ago
I just came from a project where Rust was a cult. Everything was rewritten in Rust even though much of the C code base worked very well. Because Rust! I was interested in Rust before, but it now seems like Rust programmers are like vegans (I have to hear about it every 10 minutes.)
- 59nadir 10y ago
  > I just came from a project where Rust was a cult. Everything was rewritten in Rust even though much of the C code base worked very well. Because Rust! I'm not saying anything specifically about this case, because clearly the information here is very limited, but there is a case to be made for rewriting projects that work to increase maintainability in the future. Most newer languages do have an edge in this department, as they are more conscious of those issues. There is sometimes the benefit of a rewrite regardless of language, as well; cleaning stuff up, organizing stuff better because you now know better, etc..

tcard 10y ago

It's not a feature for a user. If you're sharing a piece of code for the hacker (as in _Hacker_ News) community to check out, the language it's written in is definitely relevant.