Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
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Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
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Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#2> I don’t like the Rust culture. There’s no better way to put it.
This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig.
I tried to get into Zig even chatted with Loris Cro when he was streaming. I was looking to explore what my Rust project could look like in Zig but there were features simply missing that I couldn't do without. The entire interaction was mostly about how bad Rust is and how I could just do something different in Zig (completely misunderstanding my ask, with little interest to explore my actual requirements).
I remember watching HN and seeing every time there was something Rust related trending, there was ALWAYS a post made shortly after trying to hype Zig and this went on for like 4 years.
I'm not a Rust contributor and I don't care for some of the challenges that come with Rust, but I love what it accomplished and I find it does it very well. Back then I found the Rust community had interest and respect for Zig, so the discourse was very much one sided.
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#3> I don’t like the Rust culture. There’s no better way to put it. This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig. I tried to get into Zig even chatted with Loris Cro when he was streaming. I was looking to explore what my Rust project could look like in Zig but there were features simply missing that I couldn't do without. The entire interaction was mostly about how bad Rust is and how I could ju…
Culture wars are sadly one of the biggest inhibitors of progress throughout all of technology.
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#4Related from 13h ago:
"My thoughts on the Bun Rust rewrite" by Zig's author Andrew Kelley
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#5Related from 13h ago: "My thoughts on the Bun Rust rewrite" by Zig's author Andrew Kelley https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48843352
And for those interested in Mitchell's take on it: https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2075261972061594106?s=20.
TL;DR: No comment.
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#6Related from 13h ago: "My thoughts on the Bun Rust rewrite" by Zig's author Andrew Kelley https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48843352
And for those interested in Mitchell's take on it: https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2075261972061594106?s=20 . TL;DR: No comment.
That's the only right take, no need to make a comment on someone else expressing their opinion
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#7> I don’t like the Rust culture. There’s no better way to put it. This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig. I tried to get into Zig even chatted with Loris Cro when he was streaming. I was looking to explore what my Rust project could look like in Zig but there were features simply missing that I couldn't do without. The entire interaction was mostly about how bad Rust is and how I could ju…
> This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig.
Then why is it weird if you're saying the same thing? Different programming languages appeal to programmers with different tastes, and so it makes sense that some programmers would be drawn to language X and dislike language Y, while others would be the opposite.
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#8> I don’t like the Rust culture. There’s no better way to put it. This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig. I tried to get into Zig even chatted with Loris Cro when he was streaming. I was looking to explore what my Rust project could look like in Zig but there were features simply missing that I couldn't do without. The entire interaction was mostly about how bad Rust is and how I could ju…
> This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig. Then why is it weird if you're saying the same thing? Different programming languages appeal to programmers with different tastes, and so it makes sense that some programmers would be drawn to language X and dislike language Y, while others would be the opposite.
The year is 2026 and the only thing about coding that matters anymore is taste.
Edit: Thought about scare quoting “taste”
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#9> I’ve always believed there should be way more forks, both personal and maintained ones.
There aren't more forks because once you fork something you take on the burden of synchronization, or you forfeit the benefit of future upstream work. To focus on Ghostty, Mitchell has taken on the effort of maintaining cross-platform support. If I want one specific feature (or even a bunch of features) and create a custom fork, but then GTK changes, now I have to support that change myself (assuming it is relevant to me or my community of users), or figure out a way to integrate Mitchell's changes into my fork, or I risk losing my customizations by having to rollback to baseline if the differences between my fork and baseline are too great.
If the system is well-engineered (the work on libghostty helps here) then you can keep that common core without forking, and fork just things on the periphery of the system. But well-engineered is not common.
Re: Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig
#10> I don’t like the Rust culture. There’s no better way to put it. This is just so weird to me, because I would say the same about Zig. I tried to get into Zig even chatted with Loris Cro when he was streaming. I was looking to explore what my Rust project could look like in Zig but there were features simply missing that I couldn't do without. The entire interaction was mostly about how bad Rust is and how I could ju…
I’ve worked with people who I appreciate for their unapologetic willingness to be who they are. I might not agree with their opinions and think they’re a little extreme, but I’m glad people like them exist and enjoy seeing what they devote their time to. Based on the rest of Mitchell’s response, I think something like that is what is appreciated about Zig.
I don’t use Zig, and frequently use Rust, but I’ve never really interacted with the core development team for either. I don’t think it’s necessary to care about whatever culture is driving development once it has sufficient velocity. The Rust I use today is more than enough for my needs. Maybe if I were more involved in open source I would better understand why culture matters, but unfortunately I’m mostly a consumer of it, not a producer.