Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#11

Post by PaulHoule » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:35 PM UTC

hcabral wrote: post #3

gostsamo wrote: post #2

It solves a large class of problems that are not handled in C and C++. Some people are hyped that it can solve all problems under the son, while others don't like the hype talk or are deeply invested in C and C++ knowledge and don't like their belittlement.

Without compare language/platform abilities, it looks like a major hype cycle like Node or even Java back in the 90s and early 2000s. I read HN and see a lot of stuff around Rust that I don't see elsewhere, so this is also kind of a "why here?" question too. =)

I remember getting into a an argument about Java being overhyped in 1995 but you know Java is still here…. AWT is dead, Swing is dead, JavaFX is dead, applets are dead but Java is still heavily used.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#12

Post by _8j50 » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:42 PM UTC

I haven't seen much pumping for Rust. It is a great language but I see Go and even Ada and Ocaml are mentioned a lot (relative to actual adaption) here. There are lots more esoteric languages getting hyped on HN. There was even a popular post about .NET the other day.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#13

Post by softwaredoug » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:44 PM UTC

Why do you think it's just Hacker News?

I noticed on Manning (http://manning.com) "Rust in Action" was the top-selling book for over a month. I think Rust is just a hot topic right now.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#14

Post by rocgf » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:45 PM UTC

Rust fixes some issues that haven been present in most mainstream languages for decades, while maintaining performance.

There are many such languages or tools - Haskell (or other FP languages) or Erlang being among them - that have some vocal minorities that actually use them. The reality is that these language are highly unlikely to ever gain the traction they might arguable deserve.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#15

Post by cyber_kinetist » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:46 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #10

gostsamo wrote: post #2

It solves a large class of problems that are not handled in C and C++. Some people are hyped that it can solve all problems under the son, while others don't like the hype talk or are deeply invested in C and C++ knowledge and don't like their belittlement.

There isn’t anything you can do in Rust that somebody couldn’t do in C-Thulu, but the Rust version might be secure and the C-Thulu version won’t be.

There are lots of things C++ can do where Rust can't (ex. templates in C++ are much more powerful than Rust's generics as of now), and lots of things Rust can do where C++ can't (ex. handling memory ownership in a much more secure way, hygienic and procedural macros). You might still want to use C++ for any sort of complex programming involving numerical computation and graphics (Rust is getting there but is still a bit weak in some aspects), but for any mission-critical service related to the Web you would be more inclined to choose Rust (because of async support, and since C++ is horribly insecure for any sort of web programming).

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#16

Post by cp9 » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:48 PM UTC

people like it?

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#17

Post by rr808 » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:51 PM UTC

I'd love a Rust job but there are even fewer around than golang and much less than C++. Any suggestions for a newbie?

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#18

Post by wing-_-nuts » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:52 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #11

hcabral wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without compare language/platform abilities, it looks like a major hype cycle like Node or even Java back in the 90s and early 2000s. I read HN and see a lot of stuff around Rust that I don't see elsewhere, so this is also kind of a "why here?" question too. =)

I remember getting into a an argument about Java being overhyped in 1995 but you know Java is still here…. AWT is dead, Swing is dead, JavaFX is dead, applets are dead but Java is still heavily used.

JavaFx is dead?

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#19

Post by jstx1 » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

rocgf wrote: post #14

Rust fixes some issues that haven been present in most mainstream languages for decades, while maintaining performance. There are many such languages or tools - Haskell (or other FP languages) or Erlang being among them - that have some vocal minorities that actually use them. The reality is that these language are highly unlikely to ever gain the traction they might arguable deserve.

Are you putting Haskell and Rust in the same category when it comes to likely future adoption? They seem very different to me - Haskell being unlikely to get much more traction, and the opposite for Rust.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Deal with HN and Rust?

#20

Post by zppln » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

iExploder wrote: post #6

inexperienced novices and disheartened veterans alike get infatuated with that new shiny thing ... the rest of just smirk at the pump articles, as we have achieved state of Zen and realize _all_code_is_garbage_ and that nobody, other than minuscule amount of people who ever had a git write access in their life, actually care or will ever care about code let alone a programing language the app was written in

Pretty much. People are gonna find ways to write atrocious Rust code just like they have with any other language, and no-one is gonna bother to check all the unsafe blocks. Severe bugs may be less prevalent, but life as a a developer will suck just as much. :)