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Rust forces you to think of memory ownership. In turn challenging you to design more carefully your data structure and their relationship. I think this extra e

Rust forces you to think of memory ownership. In turn challenging you to design more carefully your data structure and their relationship. I think this extra effort is experienced differently by different people. But then comes the enlightenment. When you are comfortable thinking of ownership and pleasing the borrow checker without fighting. And I wonder if sometimes people try to hide how long it took them before enlightenment. Or forgot how much work it was to update ones thinking. My personal experience with the Rust community has been great. But it was also almost 9y ago. Things may have changed.

steveklabnik 4y ago
> When you are comfortable thinking of ownership and pleasing the borrow checker without fighting. That's kind of it. Saying "Rust forces you to think of memory ownership" is more accurate at the beginning, but not so much once you're experienced. Rust doesn't make me think about ownership: that's why the compiler checks it. It points out when I've made a mistake, and I move on. That I don't need to keep the rules in my head is kind of the entire point!
- jamincan 4y ago
  It's kind of both. I experienced this with Advent of Code, the other day where I had a vague idea of the data structure I was trying to work with, and the approach I wanted to take to solve the problem, but I started banging into errors from the compiler. I had to step back and take a moment to think about exactly what I was trying to do and what that meant for the model I was using. My approach wasn't wrong and it likely would have worked on my first shot in Python or C# or something, but the fact that Rust cares about ownership meant I had to think about it too, even if I only really did that after the compiler pointed out that there were some issues.
aussiesnack 4y ago
I haven't personally had any trouble with Rust's ownership model. It's pretty straightforward. I have found other aspects of the language and associated libraries difficult enough that I've made little progress with real projects. But that's not really relevant here. I'm more referring to the Rust community's characteristic cultural response to difficulties when they're raised, which seems (in my experience) to be first denial, then (generally polite) finger pointing.

steveklabnik 4y ago

> When you are comfortable thinking of ownership and pleasing the borrow checker without fighting. That's kind of it. Saying "Rust forces you to think of memory ownership" is more accurate at the beginning, but not so much once you're experienced. Rust doesn't make me think about ownership: that's why the compiler checks it. It points out when I've made a mistake, and I move on. That I don't need to keep the rules in my head is kind of the entire point!

jamincan 4y ago
It's kind of both. I experienced this with Advent of Code, the other day where I had a vague idea of the data structure I was trying to work with, and the approach I wanted to take to solve the problem, but I started banging into errors from the compiler. I had to step back and take a moment to think about exactly what I was trying to do and what that meant for the model I was using. My approach wasn't wrong and it likely would have worked on my first shot in Python or C# or something, but the fact that Rust cares about ownership meant I had to think about it too, even if I only really did that after the compiler pointed out that there were some issues.

aussiesnack 4y ago

I haven't personally had any trouble with Rust's ownership model. It's pretty straightforward. I have found other aspects of the language and associated libraries difficult enough that I've made little progress with real projects. But that's not really relevant here. I'm more referring to the Rust community's characteristic cultural response to difficulties when they're raised, which seems (in my experience) to be first denial, then (generally polite) finger pointing.