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> JavaScript is also classically modeled as a gelatinous mass of smoldering tires TypeScript exists? So I'm not too sure that everyone is focusing entirely on

> JavaScript is also classically modeled as a gelatinous mass of smoldering tires TypeScript exists? So I'm not too sure that everyone is focusing entirely on memory safety... > So then we see an enormous amount of effort being spent to try to replace everything written in C with Rust when that level of effort should have been able to e.g. come up with something which is easy enough for ordinary people to use that it could plausibly displace WordPress but has a better security posture. I feel like this is somewhat... inconsistent? At the risk of oversimplifying a bit (or more), Rust is "something which is easy enough for ordinary people to use that it could plausibly displace [C/C++] but has a better security posture" (not saying that it's the only option, of course). So now that all that effort has been expended in producing Rust, you want to just... forgo applying the solution and redirect that effort to working on solutions to other problems? What happens when you come up with solutions to those? Drop those solutions on the floor as well in favor of solving yet other issues? I think another explanation for allocation of effort here is due to the difference between creating a solution and applying a solution. At the risk of oversimplifying yet again, "replace C with Rust" is applying a known solution with known benefits/drawbacks to a known problem. Can you say the same about "[i]mprov[ing] the various legacy issues with distribution package managers so that people stop avoiding them even for popular packages in favor of perilous kludges like npm and Docker", let alone coming up with an easy-to-use more secure WordPress replacement?

AnthonyMouse 10mo ago
> TypeScript exists? TypeScript is JavaScript with a moderate improvement to one of its many flaws. An actual solution would look like choosing/developing a decent modern scripting language and getting the web standards people to add it to browsers and have access to the DOM, which would in turn cause that to be the first language novices learn and temper the undesirably common practice of people using JavaScript on the back end because it's what they know. > Rust is "something which is easy enough for ordinary people to use that it could plausibly displace [C/C++] but has a better security posture" It's kind of the opposite of that. It's something that imposes strict constraints which enables professional programmers to improve the correctness of their software without sacrificing performance. But it does that by getting in your way on purpose. It's not an easy thing if you're new. And there's a place for that, but it's an entirely different thing. The problem with WordPress isn't that it's designed for performance over security. It's not fast, and a replacement with a better design could easily improve performance while doing significantly more validation. And it's full of low-hanging fruit in terms of just removing a lot of the legacy footguns. > So now that all that effort has been expended in producing Rust, you want to just... forgo applying the solution and redirect that effort to working on solutions to other problems? In general when you come up with some new construction methods that are better able to withstand earthquakes, you apply them whenever you build a new building, and maybe to some specific buildings that are especially important or susceptible to the problem, but it's not worth it to raze every building in the city just to build them again with the new thing. After all, what happens when you get the new new thing? Start all over again, again?
- aw1621107 10mo ago
  > TypeScript is JavaScript with a moderate improvement to one of its many flaws. I'm certainly not going to say that nothing better could emerge, but nevertheless it's effort towards improving something that isn't memory safety. In other words, I don't really agree that there's a "singular focus" on memory safety. Memory safety rewrites/projects get headlines, absolutely, but that doesn't mean everyone else has dropped what they were doing. Generally speaking, different groups, different projects, etc. > It's kind of the opposite of that. I don't think I quite agree? What I was thinking is that there have been efforts to make memory-safe dialects/variants/etc. of C/C++, but none of them really got significant traction in the domains Rust is now finding so much success in. I'm not saying this is because Rust is easy, but (at least partially) because it took concepts from those previous efforts and made them easy enough to be accessible to ordinary devs, and as a result Rust could become a plausible more-secure replacement for C/C++ where those earlier efforts could not. > The problem with WordPress isn't that it's designed for performance over security. It's not fast, and a replacement with a better design could easily improve performance while doing significantly more validation. And it's full of low-hanging fruit in terms of just removing a lot of the legacy footguns. Sure, and I'm not denying that. My point is just that unlike Rust vs. C/C++, as of this moment we don't know what an analogous plausible replacement for WordPress could be (or at least I don't know; perhaps you're more in-the-know than I am). Again, it's the difference between having a plausible solution for a problem in hand vs. sitting at the drafting desk with some sketches. > In general when you come up with some new construction methods that are better able to withstand earthquakes, you apply them whenever you build a new building, and maybe to some specific buildings that are especially important or susceptible to the problem, but it's not worth it to raze every building in the city just to build them again with the new thing. I feel like perhaps where the analogy breaks down is that unlike rebuilding a building, the Rust version of something can be built while the old version is still being used. Rust 4 Linux didn't require Linux and/or driver development to halt or for existing drivers to be removed in order to start and/or continue its development, Dropbox didn't have to tear out its old sync engine before starting work on the new one, etc. And because of that, I feel like in general Rust is already mostly being used for new/important things? Or at the very least, I don't think "raze every building in the city just to build them again with the new thing" is an apt description of what is going on; it's more akin to building a "shadow" copy of a building in the same space using the new techniques with the possibility of swapping the "shadow" copy in at some point. Or maybe I'm just too charitable here. Wouldn't be the first time. > After all, what happens when you get the new new thing? Start all over again, again? If the cost-benefit analysis points in that direction, sure, why not?

AnthonyMouse 10mo ago

> TypeScript exists? TypeScript is JavaScript with a moderate improvement to one of its many flaws. An actual solution would look like choosing/developing a decent modern scripting language and getting the web standards people to add it to browsers and have access to the DOM, which would in turn cause that to be the first language novices learn and temper the undesirably common practice of people using JavaScript on the back end because it's what they know. > Rust is "something which is easy enough for ordinary people to use that it could plausibly displace [C/C++] but has a better security posture" It's kind of the opposite of that. It's something that imposes strict constraints which enables professional programmers to improve the correctness of their software without sacrificing performance. But it does that by getting in your way on purpose. It's not an easy thing if you're new. And there's a place for that, but it's an entirely different thing. The problem with WordPress isn't that it's designed for performance over security. It's not fast, and a replacement with a better design could easily improve performance while doing significantly more validation. And it's full of low-hanging fruit in terms of just removing a lot of the legacy footguns. > So now that all that effort has been expended in producing Rust, you want to just... forgo applying the solution and redirect that effort to working on solutions to other problems? In general when you come up with some new construction methods that are better able to withstand earthquakes, you apply them whenever you build a new building, and maybe to some specific buildings that are especially important or susceptible to the problem, but it's not worth it to raze every building in the city just to build them again with the new thing. After all, what happens when you get the new new thing? Start all over again, again?

aw1621107 10mo ago
> TypeScript is JavaScript with a moderate improvement to one of its many flaws. I'm certainly not going to say that nothing better could emerge, but nevertheless it's effort towards improving something that isn't memory safety. In other words, I don't really agree that there's a "singular focus" on memory safety. Memory safety rewrites/projects get headlines, absolutely, but that doesn't mean everyone else has dropped what they were doing. Generally speaking, different groups, different projects, etc. > It's kind of the opposite of that. I don't think I quite agree? What I was thinking is that there have been efforts to make memory-safe dialects/variants/etc. of C/C++, but none of them really got significant traction in the domains Rust is now finding so much success in. I'm not saying this is because Rust is easy, but (at least partially) because it took concepts from those previous efforts and made them easy enough to be accessible to ordinary devs, and as a result Rust could become a plausible more-secure replacement for C/C++ where those earlier efforts could not. > The problem with WordPress isn't that it's designed for performance over security. It's not fast, and a replacement with a better design could easily improve performance while doing significantly more validation. And it's full of low-hanging fruit in terms of just removing a lot of the legacy footguns. Sure, and I'm not denying that. My point is just that unlike Rust vs. C/C++, as of this moment we don't know what an analogous plausible replacement for WordPress could be (or at least I don't know; perhaps you're more in-the-know than I am). Again, it's the difference between having a plausible solution for a problem in hand vs. sitting at the drafting desk with some sketches. > In general when you come up with some new construction methods that are better able to withstand earthquakes, you apply them whenever you build a new building, and maybe to some specific buildings that are especially important or susceptible to the problem, but it's not worth it to raze every building in the city just to build them again with the new thing. I feel like perhaps where the analogy breaks down is that unlike rebuilding a building, the Rust version of something can be built while the old version is still being used. Rust 4 Linux didn't require Linux and/or driver development to halt or for existing drivers to be removed in order to start and/or continue its development, Dropbox didn't have to tear out its old sync engine before starting work on the new one, etc. And because of that, I feel like in general Rust is already mostly being used for new/important things? Or at the very least, I don't think "raze every building in the city just to build them again with the new thing" is an apt description of what is going on; it's more akin to building a "shadow" copy of a building in the same space using the new techniques with the possibility of swapping the "shadow" copy in at some point. Or maybe I'm just too charitable here. Wouldn't be the first time. > After all, what happens when you get the new new thing? Start all over again, again? If the cost-benefit analysis points in that direction, sure, why not?