I wrote in another comment that I don't think the SplitWhitespace type is an example of overengineering. And I don't. However, thinking about this more, I thin

I wrote in another comment that I don't think the SplitWhitespace type is an example of overengineering. And I don't. However, thinking about this more, I think I understand what you mean and I, sort of, agree. What I believe is going on is that Rust exposes a lot of its engineering. This can be either good or bad depending on where you're coming from. If you're working at a low level then this is usually a good thing. If you're working at a high level then this can be quite annoying. What I think you'll find is that this is largely a point in time thing. Rust is still relatively young and there is substantial work in flight under the banner of ergonomics. Even though this is more engineering, I'm pretty confident that the net effect will be to make the language feel less engineered. It probably won't completely get there this year but I don't think it'll be long.