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I meant that Go usually focuses more on solving practical issues than theoretical issues. But I have to agree that it is the exact opposite in the example I rep

I meant that Go usually focuses more on solving practical issues than theoretical issues. But I have to agree that it is the exact opposite in the example I replied to ;-) Yes, Cargo doesn't use a SAT solver, but Cargo' source code acknowledges that "solving a constraint graph is an NP-hard problem" and uses "nice heuristic to make sure we get roughly the best answer most of the time". [1] It's not just a theoretical consideration. It can create real problems. See for example "Abort crate resolution if too many candidates have been tried" at https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/4066 https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/4066. I'm not saying it's big issue, but it's something to consider in the design space and this is why the Go team is considering other options. [1] https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/blob/master/src/cargo/core/resolver/mod.rs https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/blob/master/src/cargo/cor...

kibwen 9y ago
Again, in practice, this has not created real problems, which Russ Cox seems to fail to appreciate. I've been using Cargo for years, working with other programmers for years (including programmers using large Rust codebases in production at large companies), and teaching programmers new to Rust (both online and off) for even longer. The number of times I have had crate resolution abort, or found the heuristic-chosen dependencies undesirable, or seen any other person ever complain about either of the former: zero. My sample size is not small. I respect Russ Cox's decision to favor different considerations for Go's versioning story. The approach of constraining to minimal versions is not bad, merely different (especially since the -u flag exists). But the framing of this as solving some problem with existing package managers is simply mistaken, as Russ would know if he had used these tools in practice, rather than instinctively reeling at the theoretical implications.

kibwen 9y ago

Again, in practice, this has not created real problems, which Russ Cox seems to fail to appreciate. I've been using Cargo for years, working with other programmers for years (including programmers using large Rust codebases in production at large companies), and teaching programmers new to Rust (both online and off) for even longer. The number of times I have had crate resolution abort, or found the heuristic-chosen dependencies undesirable, or seen any other person ever complain about either of the former: zero. My sample size is not small. I respect Russ Cox's decision to favor different considerations for Go's versioning story. The approach of constraining to minimal versions is not bad, merely different (especially since the -u flag exists). But the framing of this as solving some problem with existing package managers is simply mistaken, as Russ would know if he had used these tools in practice, rather than instinctively reeling at the theoretical implications.