Because Rust is, in effect, a GC-less Ocaml derivative with a coat of cherry-picked C++ syntax as paint. That's why the semantics are so different. It's more o

Because Rust is, in effect, a GC-less Ocaml derivative with a coat of cherry-picked C++ syntax as paint. That's why the semantics are so different. It's more of the lineage that began with ML in 1973 than of the ALGOL 68 lineage like C is. The Rust compiler was even originally written in Ocaml before it became self-hosting. That's also where syntax elements like these come from: - let for variable declaration and postfix type annotations separated with colons - 'a (Ocaml's equivalent to <T> for generics, because, on an abstract/theoretical level, Rust's lifetimes are a special type of generic parameter, right down to "a" apparently being the habitual default type variable name, just like "T" is in C++) - Option (option in Ocaml), Some, and None - match - fn (fun or function in Ocaml) - -> and => (just -> in Ocaml) for function returns and match arms - ()