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I don't mean the code of the Rust compiler, I mean code written in Rust becomes unidiomatic as the idioms change. How fast does that happen, is it a problem, is

I don't mean the code of the Rust compiler, I mean code written in Rust becomes unidiomatic as the idioms change. How fast does that happen, is it a problem, is it being addressed?

steveklabnik 7y ago
Okay, so hilariously, I thought you meant that at first, but re-read your comment, and said "oh, but we're talking about the compiler's maintenance and I mentioned how often the language is changing, so I must have misunderstood." Should have stuck with my gut! It is not a problem. A lot of processing steps go on before the meat of the work gets done; many new idioms end up boiling away entirely as part of this process. Like, the borrow checker doesn't even know about loops; by the time the code gets there, it's all been turned into plain old gotos. The further you get into the compiler, the simpler of a language it gets, and everything is defined in terms of sugar of the next IR down.
ansible 7y ago
As it happens, Steve can provide some metrics for this: https://words.steveklabnik.com/how-often-does-rust-change https://words.steveklabnik.com/how-often-does-rust-change https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/fz8mwm/how_often_does_rust_change/ https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/fz8mwm/how_often_does...
- steveklabnik 7y ago
  I don't think this analysis really captures idiom questions, so while it's related, I'm not sure it's the right thing here :)
mcqueenjordan 7y ago
Honestly, it’s probably the perfect time to dive in, now that async/await has dropped. During my time in rust, the major changes in idiomatic code have been around Results/Errors, async/futures, and a few macros and syntactic sugar goodies have evolved. None of these evolutions were problematic to migrate to, and all of them were moving in the right direction, IMO.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  Is the rust book still the best place to start if you're a veteran c/c++ programmer? https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/
  - steveklabnik 6y ago
    Depends on opinion; some also really like the O'Reilly book.

I don't mean the code of the Rust compiler, I mean code written in Rust becomes unidiomatic as the idioms change. How fast does that happen, is it a problem, is it being addressed?

steveklabnik 7y ago

Okay, so hilariously, I thought you meant that at first, but re-read your comment, and said "oh, but we're talking about the compiler's maintenance and I mentioned how often the language is changing, so I must have misunderstood." Should have stuck with my gut! It is not a problem. A lot of processing steps go on before the meat of the work gets done; many new idioms end up boiling away entirely as part of this process. Like, the borrow checker doesn't even know about loops; by the time the code gets there, it's all been turned into plain old gotos. The further you get into the compiler, the simpler of a language it gets, and everything is defined in terms of sugar of the next IR down.

ansible 7y ago

As it happens, Steve can provide some metrics for this: https://words.steveklabnik.com/how-often-does-rust-change https://words.steveklabnik.com/how-often-does-rust-change https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/fz8mwm/how_often_does_rust_change/ https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/fz8mwm/how_often_does...

steveklabnik 7y ago
I don't think this analysis really captures idiom questions, so while it's related, I'm not sure it's the right thing here :)

mcqueenjordan 7y ago

Honestly, it’s probably the perfect time to dive in, now that async/await has dropped. During my time in rust, the major changes in idiomatic code have been around Results/Errors, async/futures, and a few macros and syntactic sugar goodies have evolved. None of these evolutions were problematic to migrate to, and all of them were moving in the right direction, IMO.

stjohnswarts 6y ago
Is the rust book still the best place to start if you're a veteran c/c++ programmer? https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  Depends on opinion; some also really like the O'Reilly book.