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Has anybody heard if they've finalized a spec yet, or at least come close? I've thought about getting into Rust from time to time, but the lack of a finalized

Has anybody heard if they've finalized a spec yet, or at least come close? I've thought about getting into Rust from time to time, but the lack of a finalized spec and/or stable reference implementation has always scared me off.

pcwalton 14y ago
We're getting close. Rust 0.4 (hopefully to be released next week, assuming no more schedule slips) will be quite close to final syntax-wise. Although not all the features will be implemented, your code will be mostly backwards-compatible. If you'd like to try out the language, I recommend working off git master rather than 0.3; the language has been dramatically simplified in Rust 0.4.
- Calamitous 14y ago
  Excellent, thanks for the update! :)
brson 14y ago
There is no finalized spec (and the spec has actually fallen quite far behind for the moment), nor do I expect anything about Rust to be called 'final' for a while yet. The upcoming 0.4 release (any day now) makes a big push to get a lot of the syntax pieces in place, but still has many rough edges. Beyond that the standard library is still an incomplete and inconsistent stew of different styles. Rust is still firmly alpha software, but should stabilize significantly in the next year.
- rokekr 14y ago
  Rust feels more like Perl 6 (always on the horizon) or Ada (the do everything language), while Go already is already specified, being improved, and out in production.
  - nagnatron 14y ago
    I don't think it's like that. I think they're just developing it through usage. And it's not like it's been ten years yet.
    - davidw 14y ago
      > I don't think it's like that. I think they're just developing it through usage. What's shipping with it? I have a bit of the same impression that the other poster has, that it's always in development without something stable. I hope that gets dispelled sooner or later, because, for better or worse, fuzzy marketing type things like that matter.
      - asdfs 14y ago
        The compiler is written in Rust, as is Mozilla's experimental browser engine called Servo.
      - mbrubeck 14y ago
        Your impression is completely accurate; the language is in development and is not ready to use yet. It shouldn't be used in any shipping products. There's nothing to "dispel" here until the 1.0 syntax is is finalized; fortunately that should happen in months rather than years. From a pure marketing perspective, sure, maybe it would be better to finish more of the design and implementation before talking about it publicly. But Mozilla's pretty committed to working in the open, and that has its own benefits. For example, significant parts of the Rust implementation were created by contributors who were not paid Mozilla staff, including a Google employee (in her spare time). (Disclosure: I'm a Mozilla employee but not part of the Rust team; I've contributed a little bit to the Rust compiler in my free time.)
        davidw 14y ago
        Fair enough. Like I said, it was just an impression; a vague feeling, so I'll be curious to see what they come up with when it comes out.
  - 14y ago

pcwalton 14y ago

We're getting close. Rust 0.4 (hopefully to be released next week, assuming no more schedule slips) will be quite close to final syntax-wise. Although not all the features will be implemented, your code will be mostly backwards-compatible. If you'd like to try out the language, I recommend working off git master rather than 0.3; the language has been dramatically simplified in Rust 0.4.

Calamitous 14y ago
Excellent, thanks for the update! :)

brson 14y ago

There is no finalized spec (and the spec has actually fallen quite far behind for the moment), nor do I expect anything about Rust to be called 'final' for a while yet. The upcoming 0.4 release (any day now) makes a big push to get a lot of the syntax pieces in place, but still has many rough edges. Beyond that the standard library is still an incomplete and inconsistent stew of different styles. Rust is still firmly alpha software, but should stabilize significantly in the next year.

rokekr 14y ago
Rust feels more like Perl 6 (always on the horizon) or Ada (the do everything language), while Go already is already specified, being improved, and out in production.
- nagnatron 14y ago
  I don't think it's like that. I think they're just developing it through usage. And it's not like it's been ten years yet.
  - davidw 14y ago
    > I don't think it's like that. I think they're just developing it through usage. What's shipping with it? I have a bit of the same impression that the other poster has, that it's always in development without something stable. I hope that gets dispelled sooner or later, because, for better or worse, fuzzy marketing type things like that matter.
    - asdfs 14y ago
      The compiler is written in Rust, as is Mozilla's experimental browser engine called Servo.
    - mbrubeck 14y ago
      Your impression is completely accurate; the language is in development and is not ready to use yet. It shouldn't be used in any shipping products. There's nothing to "dispel" here until the 1.0 syntax is is finalized; fortunately that should happen in months rather than years. From a pure marketing perspective, sure, maybe it would be better to finish more of the design and implementation before talking about it publicly. But Mozilla's pretty committed to working in the open, and that has its own benefits. For example, significant parts of the Rust implementation were created by contributors who were not paid Mozilla staff, including a Google employee (in her spare time). (Disclosure: I'm a Mozilla employee but not part of the Rust team; I've contributed a little bit to the Rust compiler in my free time.)
      - davidw 14y ago
        Fair enough. Like I said, it was just an impression; a vague feeling, so I'll be curious to see what they come up with when it comes out.
- 14y ago