I think to be "oscillation" they'd have to change their minds three times or more. chrismorgan in this subthread mentions "Nested block comments is one that wa

I think to be "oscillation" they'd have to change their minds three times or more. chrismorgan in this subthread mentions "Nested block comments is one that was removed a year or two back as unnecessary and reinstated a few months ago. That's trying out something both ways, and after experience deciding one is best. That they changed their minds twice just means their initial first cut turned out to be "right" after all. Now, if they're doing X -> Y -> X -> Y that would be cause for concern. I think your concern for "stiff competition" is perhaps overblown, I only see C and C++ as being a real competitor, I don't see Go or anything based on the JVM as being even in the same category, you're a lot further from the metal. Personally, after doing plenty of C++ in the '90s I've decided it's no fun at all (a supremely dangerous language), am defaulting to C at the moment and will at some point decide if Rust meets my requirements and is likely to be viable for a long time. I gather I'm not the only one.