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A lot of the cultural phenomena around Rust can best be explained in religious terms. It's no accident that we are sometimes referred to as the "Rust Evangelism
by raphlinus 4y ago
A lot of the cultural phenomena around Rust can best be explained in religious terms. It's no accident that we are sometimes referred to as the "Rust Evangelism Strike Force," and the word "zealot" is frequently used, of course largely by critics.
There's a deeper level as well. The concept of "memory safety" which is a core principle of Rust has, I believe, a lot in common with religious concepts of purity and cleanliness. Undefined behavior, by contrast, is an undesirable form of uncleanliness, emotionally similar to trayf in Jewish culture or haram in Muslim culture. Rituals include the `#[deny(unsafe_code)]` incantation, or using cargo-deny or similar tools to make sure uncleanliness hasn't crept in through dependencies.
It's not just Rust, although that's a nexus for a lot of tension and conflict around this issue. Tools for avoiding and mitigating unsafety are often given names evoking cleanliness: "Purify" and "sanitizers."
- LAC-Tech 4y agoI'm not sure if this was meant in seriousness or in jest, but regardless I really enjoyed it.
- 082349872349872 4y agoThat'd explain some of the pushback around https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34557840 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34557840 ; the people who think we all ought to be using the same languages and tools are akin to believers in proselytizing religions? (don't mind me; you might find me upon occasion with the animists, worshipping at the altar of '*' and '&')
- devwastaken 4y agoEating pork won't cause memory corruption.
- eternalban 4y agoA dirty read, actually.
- makeitdouble 4y agoIt probably did a lot at some point. Pork requires more preparation/cooking discipline than beef for instance.
- renewiltord 4y agoTaeniasis may cause literally that if you don't use the sanitizer. (Is only joke - no srs)
- sircastor 4y agoI recall that at Apple, in the 90s, a man named Guy Kawasaki was Chief Evangelist at Apple, and he really connected with the community back when things were pretty rough for Apple. I actually didn’t realize that evangelist had a religious context until many years later - I thought it just meant someone who is enthusiastic and pushes the product.
- 3836293648 4y agoWell, it does now
- steven_0351 4y agoWould a product evangelist for Apple TV (or any smart TV) be a televangelist?
- beebmam 4y agoWhen you say that the advocacy for Rustlang can be "best explained in religious terms", how did you come to the conclusion that, when quantified, the other reasons for this behavior are less than the religious one? Are you certain you are not assuming that Rustlang advocates are arguing in bad faith?
- faitswulff 4y agoYou should probably google Raph Linus
- bigiain 4y ago> “The Rust Evangelism Task Force” I miss n-gate’s weekly HN annotated digests. I hope whoever they are/were is doing well…
- nurettin 4y agoI think it was just a long rant. After a while it just got repetitive and wasn't maintainable anymore. But it was fun while it lasted.
- flippinburgers 4y agoI'm pretty confident that the desire to be clean is not restricted to religious zealotry.
- stared 4y agoOnce I saw the light of Rust, I understood that it is the one true programming language. There are pieces of wisdom in low-level languages, script languages, and functional languages. But after seeing Rust, one knows that there are only fragments of something greater. I am a sinner, though. Even after I saw Rust, I still write mostly in Python and TypeScript. Out of convenience, out of habit, by social pressure.
- steponlego 4y agoDo you ever feel that the rude, forceful, and automated bot-spam Rust evangelism has harmed the project? Lots of people view your activities are harmful and you're EVERYWHERE commenting on EVERYTHING that doesn't use Rust. You're not mere evangelists - it's a toxic, corporate astroturf that's taken over this site, Reddit, Slashdot, even 4chan is filled to the brim with your evangelism. I would say, turn off the bots but I'm sure you won't.