Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#1

Post by iamnotarobotman » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:47 PM UTC

Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta
engineering.fb.com

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#2

Post by vo_9812 » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

I am excited to see Rust gaining popularity and becoming a first-class language at Meta.

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#3

Post by alhirzel » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

Where at Meta is Haskell primarily used?

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#4

Post by eatonphil » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

I missed it skimming through the first time. The exact list:

> Meta’s primary supported server-side languages are Hack, C++, Rust, and Python.

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#5

Post by preseinger » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:54 PM UTC

I'm surprised at the list. Rust is fundamentally immature, C++ is fundamentally intractable, Python is fundamentally unusable at scale, and Hack is, well, no discussion needed. Strong negative signal for potential candidates.

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#6

Post by troutwine » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

preseinger wrote: post #5

I'm surprised at the list. Rust is fundamentally immature, C++ is fundamentally intractable, Python is fundamentally unusable at scale, and Hack is, well, no discussion needed. Strong negative signal for potential candidates.

What language(s), to your mind, would send a positive signal?

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#7

Post by clarle » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

For folks at Meta, is Thrift still the main communication protocol for service-to-service communication? Curious to see if that's still how most of these server-side applications talk with each other.

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#8

Post by tuckerman » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

alhirzel wrote: post #3

Where at Meta is Haskell primarily used?

I don’t work there, but from talks I’ve gone to I believe their Scaled Abuse team uses (or at least used to use) Haskell[1] along with the library Haxl[2]

1. https://engineering.fb.com/2015/06/26/security/fighting-spam...

2. https://engineering.fb.com/2014/06/10/web/open-sourcing-haxl...

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#9

Post by voz_ » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:58 PM UTC

clarle wrote: post #7

For folks at Meta, is Thrift still the main communication protocol for service-to-service communication? Curious to see if that's still how most of these server-side applications talk with each other.

Yes.

Re: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

#10

Post by _aavaa_ » Wed, Jul 27, 2022, 4:58 PM UTC

preseinger wrote: post #5

I'm surprised at the list. Rust is fundamentally immature, C++ is fundamentally intractable, Python is fundamentally unusable at scale, and Hack is, well, no discussion needed. Strong negative signal for potential candidates.

I can't speak to the other three, but the comment about python is not accurate. Or at least not given the way that python is used for the mentioned applications "For data science, ML applications, and Instagram, Python continues to be the language of choice".

Pure python maybe, but the popular packages for these applications are all essentially python wrappers for highly optimized compiled code.

I'm curious though, what language(s) do you believe belong on that list?