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Which is why some people push for no longer using C and C++ as much as possible. It's just not feasible to expect the average programmer to avoid all the securi

Which is why some people push for no longer using C and C++ as much as possible. It's just not feasible to expect the average programmer to avoid all the security pitfalls. Of course, whether Rust is the best option isn't a given.

josephg 3y ago
There aren’t a lot of memory safe options if you want the kind of performance rust offers. Rust is fine, but it’s far from perfect. It’s hard to learn, complex, and the macro and async systems are honestly a bit of a mess. I’m really looking forward to whatever comes after rust. I’m hoping some bright sparks out there manage to make a language with rust’s memory safety but that cleans up some of rust’s rough edges.
- tracker1 3y ago
  To be fair, how many applications really need Rust's level of performance? I mean operating system code and drivers... But, many apps are getting the job done in electron with a browser engine. I like rust, I like the sensibilities. Maybe my experience is too limited to higher level problems though. There's plenty of room for the likes of Go, Java and C# is all I'm getting at.
  - josephg 3y ago
    Yeah I think I broadly agree with you. Not many applications need rust's performance. Go, Java, C#, nodejs, python, etc are all great languages. But the software which does need or want "native performance" is incredibly important software. I'd use rust for things like databases, operating systems, web browsers, high performance web servers, network services (samba, ssh), and other "systems" software like that. Most of the lines of code ever written are probably in application code. If you're making a company website, python or C# or whatever is totally fine. But a remarkable proportion of the lines of code your computer actually runs were written in C or C++. Your web server might be in python, but if you use nginx as a proxy - well, thats C++ (I think). Use postgres? C++. Running your software in linux? C. Testing with Chrome? C++. What is python itself written in? I dunno, but I bet its either C or C++. You get the picture. Whether or not rust is a big deal is largely a matter of focus.

josephg 3y ago

There aren’t a lot of memory safe options if you want the kind of performance rust offers. Rust is fine, but it’s far from perfect. It’s hard to learn, complex, and the macro and async systems are honestly a bit of a mess. I’m really looking forward to whatever comes after rust. I’m hoping some bright sparks out there manage to make a language with rust’s memory safety but that cleans up some of rust’s rough edges.

tracker1 3y ago
To be fair, how many applications really need Rust's level of performance? I mean operating system code and drivers... But, many apps are getting the job done in electron with a browser engine. I like rust, I like the sensibilities. Maybe my experience is too limited to higher level problems though. There's plenty of room for the likes of Go, Java and C# is all I'm getting at.
- josephg 3y ago
  Yeah I think I broadly agree with you. Not many applications need rust's performance. Go, Java, C#, nodejs, python, etc are all great languages. But the software which does need or want "native performance" is incredibly important software. I'd use rust for things like databases, operating systems, web browsers, high performance web servers, network services (samba, ssh), and other "systems" software like that. Most of the lines of code ever written are probably in application code. If you're making a company website, python or C# or whatever is totally fine. But a remarkable proportion of the lines of code your computer actually runs were written in C or C++. Your web server might be in python, but if you use nginx as a proxy - well, thats C++ (I think). Use postgres? C++. Running your software in linux? C. Testing with Chrome? C++. What is python itself written in? I dunno, but I bet its either C or C++. You get the picture. Whether or not rust is a big deal is largely a matter of focus.