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Rust isn't perfect, but it's basically the most viable language currently to be used in software such as Linux. It's definitely more of a C++ contender than any
by vacuity 1y ago
Rust isn't perfect, but it's basically the most viable language currently to be used in software such as Linux. It's definitely more of a C++ contender than anything else, but manages to be very usable in most other cases too. Rust 1.0 got a lot of things right with its compile-time features, and the utility of these features for "low-level" code has been demonstrated repeatedly. If a language is to replace Rust in the future, I expect it will take on many of the strengths of Rust. Moreover, Rust is impressive at becoming better. The work for Rust-for-Linux, alongside various other improvements (e.g. next trait solver, Polonius and place-based borrowing, parallel rustc frontend) show that Rust can evolve significantly without a huge addition in complexity. Actually, most changes should reduce its complexity. Yes, Rust has fumbled some areas, such as the async ecosystem, the macro ecosystem, and pointer-width integers, but its mistakes are also considered for improvement. The only unfortunate thing is the lack of manpower to drive some of these improvements, but I'm in it for the long run. Frankly, I'd say that if the industry had to use only one language tomorrow, Rust is the best extant choice. Really, I'm open to
And, it's really funny that GP criticizes Rust but doesn't acknowledge that of course blood, sweat, and tears have already gone into less drastic variants for C or C++. Rust itself is one of the outputs of the solution space! Sure, hype is always a thing, but Rust has quite demonstrated its utility in the free market of programming languages. If Rust was not as promising as it is, I don't see why all of these companies and Linus Torvalds would seriously consider it after all these years of experience. I can accept if C had a valid "worse is better" merit to it. I think C++, if anything, has the worst value-to-hype ratio of any programming language. But Rust has never been a one-trick pony for memory safety, or a bag of old tricks. Like any good language, it offers its own way of doing things, and for many people, its way is a net improvement.