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How will learning a new language help you? I guess it depends on what you're trying to achieve in the end, but when that something is building software, learnin
by blub 12y ago
How will learning a new language help you? I guess it depends on what you're trying to achieve in the end, but when that something is building software, learning how to use a new kind of hammer isn't the breakthrough one needs most of the time.
In fact I find the premise of all the Go/Rust/D advocates a bit strange. It makes sense to learn a tool that does something you can't do with your existing ones, but learning 5 tools that are mostly the same is a waste of time unless one is not into collecting tools as a hobby.
- Dewie 12y agoThe value proposition of Rust is unique, at least when compared to the languages that you've brought up (and C++). And how are Rust and Go "mostly the same"?
- AnimalMuppet 12y agoWell, if one is frustrated with the limitations of a particular tool, learning other tools that are like it may in fact help - if the other tools work around some of the frustrations. If not, then it's a waste of time.
- steveklabnik 12y agoWell, it depends on how you weight the alternatives. Rust's advantage over C++ is its memory safety. Go is similar (I'm not sure if its safety guarantees are as strong as Rust, I should read up on that...), and it's advantage over Rust is that its type system is easier to get started with, but its disadvantage is requiring garbage collection. D is closer to C++ than Rust is, but has amazing metaprogramming, and defaults to GC, though it's not mandatory. If none of these things matter to you, then they do seem similar. But if they do matter, then the difference is much larger.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tptacek 12y agoI wish language advocates would break themselves of the urge to sum up languages they don't use.
- steveklabnik 12y agoI did use D a lot, though it was very long ago. I don't like Go, but I respect quite a bit of it. I consider myself more of a PLT enthusiast than a language advocate. Is there anything about my summation that's incorrect?
- tptacek 12y agoYes, I think so. Let's not debate it though.
- steveklabnik 12y agoYes, let's not. I just highly respect your opinion, and know you have a lot to say about Go.
- tptacek 12y agoLikewise, hence avoiding the subject. :)