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My rule of thumb is Go is better for writing software, Rust is better for running software. If I'm prototyping or experimenting, I'm much more productive in Go

My rule of thumb is Go is better for writing software, Rust is better for running software. If I'm prototyping or experimenting, I'm much more productive in Go. If I have a well-specified protocol or something that works that I want to be faster, more secure, or importable via C ABI, I'd go Rust. In practice this means I almost never use Rust.

hot_gril 3y ago
The separation for me is more about layers. If you're writing anything touching an OS, your choices are basically C, C++, Rust. If you're writing a web backend application, Rust isn't a good choice, and even Golang is questionable.
- attilakun 3y ago
  Why is Golang questionable for web backends? I thought it was designed for that.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    It's designed to be more CPU-efficient than NodeJS or Python, but if all your heavy lifting is really in Postgres and other services you're calling, it doesn't matter and it's a bit pedantic. I think Golang was designed for something in the middle, maybe building a DBMS or some deeper backend.
    - Vanclief 3y ago
      I strongly disagree with this statement, Golang is excellent for building backends and just the orchestration of all the services you are calling is better done in a typed/compiled language with great multi threading support and fast compilation times that is exactly what Golang excels at.
      - hot_gril 3y ago
        This is trying to solve a problem a lot of people never really had. I've never been working on an Express backend and thought gee, wish I had threading.
    - bippihippi1 3y ago
      using a systems language for a backend mainly gains throughput over python than latency. each request might not be faster but you can handle 100x more users.
      - hot_gril 3y ago
        Amdahl's law, it won't be 100x when my server is waiting on RPCs and other I/O most of the time anyway
    - david38 3y ago
      Not true. Go is also made for this. Node is awful with lots of connections. Go gives me way fewer bugs, easier to properly trace, static typing is a blessing, etc. With a db that can handle thousands upon thousands of connections, Go trounced Node in my experience
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- flashgordon 3y ago
  This is where I have finally landed on. I spent a lot of time over that past 15 years going through c/c++, (python|TS|go)* (almost in that order). My realization has eventually been for systems stuff c is great and ofcourse now if I can afford the learning curve then rust For fe, I use ts with htmx for any server side rendering. I got very deep into nextjs enough to consider myself competent but code bloat and dependency breakages just got me off it For backend/control planes like things nothing has come close to Go for me. It isn't perfect in any one axis, but has a bit of everything I need mixed (fast build speeds, CSP style concurrcy for managing orchestration related workflows, reasonably good typing, and runtime speed), well rounded stdlib, fewer dependency breakages and soon.
- littlestymaar 3y ago
  For back-end Rust is unbeatable if you are doing the kind of things where you need the performance for as little footprint as possible because getting twice as much server would be unaffordable. But that also means that it is not necessary for pretty much every company out there except the biggest ones. Rust is cool for interops though: you talk about the OS, but it's not just that, it's also integrating with other languages in a way managed languages can't do: you can use Rust in a Python app like you'd use C, and you can speed up critical section of your node App with it as well[1], this is where Rust shine. Not in competing with Go in online popularity contexts. [1]: https://neon-bindings.com/ https://neon-bindings.com/
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Yeah, Rust-C interop was really nice the time I used it.

hot_gril 3y ago

The separation for me is more about layers. If you're writing anything touching an OS, your choices are basically C, C++, Rust. If you're writing a web backend application, Rust isn't a good choice, and even Golang is questionable.

attilakun 3y ago
Why is Golang questionable for web backends? I thought it was designed for that.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  It's designed to be more CPU-efficient than NodeJS or Python, but if all your heavy lifting is really in Postgres and other services you're calling, it doesn't matter and it's a bit pedantic. I think Golang was designed for something in the middle, maybe building a DBMS or some deeper backend.
  - Vanclief 3y ago
    I strongly disagree with this statement, Golang is excellent for building backends and just the orchestration of all the services you are calling is better done in a typed/compiled language with great multi threading support and fast compilation times that is exactly what Golang excels at.
    - hot_gril 3y ago
      This is trying to solve a problem a lot of people never really had. I've never been working on an Express backend and thought gee, wish I had threading.
  - bippihippi1 3y ago
    using a systems language for a backend mainly gains throughput over python than latency. each request might not be faster but you can handle 100x more users.
    - hot_gril 3y ago
      Amdahl's law, it won't be 100x when my server is waiting on RPCs and other I/O most of the time anyway
  - david38 3y ago
    Not true. Go is also made for this. Node is awful with lots of connections. Go gives me way fewer bugs, easier to properly trace, static typing is a blessing, etc. With a db that can handle thousands upon thousands of connections, Go trounced Node in my experience
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
flashgordon 3y ago
This is where I have finally landed on. I spent a lot of time over that past 15 years going through c/c++, (python|TS|go)* (almost in that order). My realization has eventually been for systems stuff c is great and ofcourse now if I can afford the learning curve then rust For fe, I use ts with htmx for any server side rendering. I got very deep into nextjs enough to consider myself competent but code bloat and dependency breakages just got me off it For backend/control planes like things nothing has come close to Go for me. It isn't perfect in any one axis, but has a bit of everything I need mixed (fast build speeds, CSP style concurrcy for managing orchestration related workflows, reasonably good typing, and runtime speed), well rounded stdlib, fewer dependency breakages and soon.
littlestymaar 3y ago
For back-end Rust is unbeatable if you are doing the kind of things where you need the performance for as little footprint as possible because getting twice as much server would be unaffordable. But that also means that it is not necessary for pretty much every company out there except the biggest ones. Rust is cool for interops though: you talk about the OS, but it's not just that, it's also integrating with other languages in a way managed languages can't do: you can use Rust in a Python app like you'd use C, and you can speed up critical section of your node App with it as well[1], this is where Rust shine. Not in competing with Go in online popularity contexts. [1]: https://neon-bindings.com/ https://neon-bindings.com/
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Yeah, Rust-C interop was really nice the time I used it.