Ask HN: Will Rust ever become a mainstream systems programming language?

Post by makmanalp » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 8:15 PM UTC

stmfd wrote: post #30

makmanalp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you need segfault protection, you're a bad programmer. Let's be honest, you don't segfault unless you're doing something idiotic. I've not segfaulted in the past 8 years in anything but assembly sigh Please look at the "trophy case" here: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/

My views are the responses you'll probably get from the people who've been doing systems programming in C for the past 20 years. I don't doubt lots of common applications have memory issues. Maybe not a definite segfault but it's incredibly disingenuous to act like it's a major issue (as if writing C and C++ are similar to disarming a bomb or something). It's nonsense and the same reason I have been learning C++17's…

Post by soulbadguy » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 8:27 PM UTC

xiphias wrote: post #36

throwaway7645 wrote: post #3

It does keep rising in popularity, but is that coming from folks actually using system languages like C, C++, Ada, and Forth? I'm guessing only a portion. There's a difference between a web developer using Rust enthusiastically for hobby projects and a seasoned C coder switching to Rust for a professional job. In fact, a lot of the projects I've seen in Rust (ex: Dropbox) are commonly being done in Go as long as the…

Rust is the first language since C++ that can improve/not hinder runtime speed while making development safer, so I definately see its future. The only problem is that the compiler is very slow now, so it doesn't scale to large code bases, which is a no-go in my company. Hopefully the Rust team understands that this is not only a would-be-nice to have feature (I see learning the borrow checker as a smaller problem)

Post by tmccrmck » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 8:40 PM UTC

46Bit wrote: post #20

throwaway7645 wrote: post #3

It does keep rising in popularity, but is that coming from folks actually using system languages like C, C++, Ada, and Forth? I'm guessing only a portion. There's a difference between a web developer using Rust enthusiastically for hobby projects and a seasoned C coder switching to Rust for a professional job. In fact, a lot of the projects I've seen in Rust (ex: Dropbox) are commonly being done in Go as long as the…

You have a point. I've done medium-sized C projects in my degree, but my professional background is mostly web. I've been using Rust heavily for 10 months. I think that if you want to use it for web stuff you very much can, but the language is more immature than it might first appear. If the community keeps going the way it is, I hope to work with it commercially by 2020. The most promising things I've read about it…

Post by xiphias » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

biokoda wrote: post #49

xiphias wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rust is the first language since C++ that can improve/not hinder runtime speed while making development safer, so I definately see its future. The only problem is that the compiler is very slow now, so it doesn't scale to large code bases, which is a no-go in my company. Hopefully the Rust team understands that this is not only a would-be-nice to have feature (I see learning the borrow checker as a smaller problem)

> The only problem is that the compiler is very slow now, so it doesn't scale to large code bases The way of working with that is use cargo check command which is much faster and splitting your problem into multiple crates so you don't have everything in one giant project. Which is what tends to happen in large code bases anyway. Also they are putting quite a lot of work into making it faster. Before you get to that…

Post by soulbadguy » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 8:53 PM UTC

makmanalp wrote: post #71

stmfd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My views are the responses you'll probably get from the people who've been doing systems programming in C for the past 20 years. I don't doubt lots of common applications have memory issues. Maybe not a definite segfault but it's incredibly disingenuous to act like it's a major issue (as if writing C and C++ are similar to disarming a bomb or something). It's nonsense and the same reason I have been learning C++17's…

You're being so rude and inflammatory, for no reason. What's so frustrating is how you're convinced that everyone else is an idiot. > it's incredibly disingenuous to act like it's a major issue I gave you a trove of real world examples of serious security issues in widely used software developed by competent teams. Quite a few of these would have not existed in a language with the kind of guarantees that Rust provide…