4 ms·
Small point of contention, but it’s actually Rust that has a Cyclone-like memory management system. Cyclone’s initial release was ‘02 and it finalized in ‘06.
by throwaway17_17 4y ago
Small point of contention, but it’s actually Rust that has a Cyclone-like memory management system.
Cyclone’s initial release was ‘02 and it finalized in ‘06.
- pcwalton 4y agoOh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Rust invented any of those things. Cyclone was a big influence on Rust actually. We chatted with Dan Grossman early on, and his presentation "Existential Types and Imperative Languages" is the earliest description of the problem the borrow checker is trying to solve (check it out, it's a great presentation!) We stand on the shoulders of giants :)
- jolux 4y agoLikeness is bidirectional and doesn’t imply derivedness, though.
- throwaway17_17 4y agoI feel like I stuck my foot in my mouth with my comment, but separate from that… This is an interesting perspective, I can’t think of a reason you would be incorrect, but I know I have some default intuition that likeness is most often used to imply derivedness. Also, that’s a great way to phrase what you meant.
- chriskrycho 4y agoYou just (accidentally, no doubt!) well-actually’d someone who helped build Rust and has been invoked in it since long before 1.0. ;-p He’s aware of the direction of influence and was just saying they’re similar, not saying one influenced the other.
- pcwalton 4y agoNo worries, it's my fault for not being clear. The absolute last thing I want to do is to take credit for things we didn't do. Rust wouldn't exist without that academic work by Tofte, Talpin, Grossman, etc.
- throwaway17_17 4y agoI said it in my sibling comment above, but to be clear, I was well aware you almost certainly knew Cyclone’s general age. I don’t want you to think I was implying or hinting anything near taking or denying credit.
- throwaway17_17 4y agoI’m aware of pcwalton’s involvement in Rust. So it wasn’t accidental in any way. It was however slightly tongue-in-cheek, but I probably could have used a /s to indicate it wasn’t an attempt to score ‘I’m smart points’. I was also very aware that, despite anything else, they were almost certain to be aware of which came first. I may take serious issue with pcwalton’s assessment of the performance characteristics of OS threads vs other concurrency implementations, but fun HN arguments aside; I have never seen or heard of any lack of acknowledgement of preceding language/implementation work leading to Rust’s development. So I certainly wasnt attempting to imply any stealing or denial of credit/attribution.