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> C-like languages are much simpler for newcomers to pick up. They're really not. The moment people hit "**"--pointer-to-pointer--most of them bounce off. Th
by bsder 4y ago
> C-like languages are much simpler for newcomers to pick up.
They're really not. The moment people hit "**"--pointer-to-pointer--most of them bounce off.
There is a reason why an Operating Systems class is one of the most fearsome things in the CS curriculum--you have pointers everywhere that, once corrupted, are a nightmare to track down due to the lack of support in the language. If I were teaching an OS class, I suspect it's a tossup--Rust might make teaching the class harder than C (not convinced, though ...), but I suspect more students would get an actual working OS at the end of the class.
The worst part is that pointer chasing is a performance anti-pattern nowadays. Everybody wants to make data structures look like FORTRAN common blocks--base declaration+index.
That having been said, I wouldn't teach either C or Rust as a beginning language. A GC language is fine for 95%+ (I'd argue 99%+ actually ...) of programming tasks. And the experience people get will stand the well for the time when they finally need to step outside that--if they're lucky, they never will.
- kevlar700 4y agoAda offers security and simplicity and is already part of GCC but also has llvm now. Linux kernel drivers have also been demonstrated. Perhaps it would be healthier for Rust to have competition? https://www.linux.com/audience/developers/hacking-the-linux-kernel-in-ada-part-1/ https://www.linux.com/audience/developers/hacking-the-linux-... https://github.com/alkhimey/Ada_Kernel_Module_Framework https://github.com/alkhimey/Ada_Kernel_Module_Framework https://alire.ada.dev/ https://alire.ada.dev/ Nvidia also chose Spark; a built in subset of Ada as being more cost effective for secure code than C++. https://youtu.be/2YoPoNx3L5E https://youtu.be/2YoPoNx3L5E Assembly is also supported by Ada and I found it far easier to add than with C even. C interface support is also excellent.
- bsder 4y ago> Ada offers security and simplicity and is already part of GCC but also has llvm now. Linux kernel drivers have also been demonstrated. Yet the Rust Evangelism Strike Force(tm) got Linus to finally agree to use a language other than C within a couple years while Ada couldn't pull that off over a couple decades. Community, for better or worse, is relevant to programming language acceptance.