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Rust's niche seems very clear: C++ programmers that need better tools. This is an audience that should be willing to make a time investment, and understands the

• sidlls 10y ago
  I disagree to some extent, for a couple of reasons. First, C++ programmers in aggregate have to consider more than the choice of language for their projects. Odds are they work for somebody else, on a team, an established project, whatever. In these cases "C++ programmers need better tools" doesn't mean "toss the bath out with the water." Rust isn't necessarily a good move in established products, in other words. Second, Rust would do better, in my opinion, to target folks who are new to systems programming and, for whatever (mostly invalid, in my opinion) reasons, are intimidated by C or C++. Rust is very powerful and in many ways I like it much better than C++. I think Rust offers a great way for these people to have a gentle introduction to the world of systems programming. I say "gentle" because a good portion of the "pain" of learning is front-loaded into getting a build, rather than back-loaded into futzing about with gdb (although that would be something these folks will miss out on--who doesn't like a good session with gdb with a satisfying bug squash at the end?). Get them while they're young, as they say.
  • gcp 10y ago
    I don't disagree - my statement was also directed to people new to this field. The overhead for existing C++ teams is learning the language, and (potentially AFAIK) interfacing with C++ code that has no good C style API. But Rust seems to tackle even the latter quite well. I don't think you'll get around the learning curve for a new language.