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Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

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Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#321
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see anyone mention this, but I think having a single binary is much nicer than having a JS (or Python) program sprawled all over your system.

Having single binary output is completely different problem and is solved for both Python and typescript (bun supports the later).

That's true, but it's not quite the same thing. The single binary you're referring to is the interpreter and source code packaged together (at least for TS/JS).

If you install too many of these "single binaries" then at some point you would be better off just having a single interpreter and using npm/pip.

By contrast the Rust binary only contains the machine code for this program and can be directly executed.

Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No because it means people will use Rust for the wrong reasons. Systems programming is only a tiny fraction of code out there. Approaching every problem as a systems programming problem is a massive waste of resources and intellect.

For small to medium projects, an LLM can write functional (if not well crafted) Rust. Considering how easy this is now, why choose a heavier, slower and less typesafe language?

Edit: I lost the context that this is about building devtools where you can’t just throw more hardware at the problem. But perhaps my answer still explains the reality: anthropic builds Claude with Claude so Claude needs to be easy to build with Claude.

Easier to read for humans is easy to read for LLMs. A more expressive language will bring about fewer misunderstandings when you apply stochastic tools like LLMs.

Just be sure you don’t choose something heavier/slower that is not more expressive.

Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see spreading Rust as an overall good thing, because it changes benchmark on how software should feel in terms of performance, stability, memory footprint. So even if it doesn't create tangible advantage in a particular use case - its still good for the whole industry.

No because it means people will use Rust for the wrong reasons. Systems programming is only a tiny fraction of code out there. Approaching every problem as a systems programming problem is a massive waste of resources and intellect.

Since when is Rust a systems programming language? On their website it is defined as "general-purpose programming language".

>Approaching every problem as a systems programming problem is a massive waste of resources and intellect.

If someone took their time and decided to use Rust maybe their first couple projects won't be as efficient, but they will learn the language and how to use it in the best ways, they will contribute to the ecosystem, etc. Again, I'm looking at the big picture and not specific project case.

Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#325
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so much 1) the agent is probably not the only thing running on the system, so more is just worse generally 2) I am fine if a developer needs Rust or similar to write a resource efficient app. I wonder what the developer could achieve when he put the optimization effort into the Rust app instead.

My point is that Java isn’t going to be the application that sends your machine into swap hell. People are so narrow minded about programming on this forum. They talk as if only Rust fills the void between unsafe C and node.js behemoths. But the reality is there are a plethora of other good languages out there too.

I can't put Java into good languages category at least for how it allows null to be everywhere.

Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#328
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people are crazy, usage of npm for installing binaries is quite common unfortunately.

So …. do I understand it right? openai, one of the hottest companies on the planet right now, with very deep pockets, distribute their official rust cli via the … public npm repo?

Maybe they consider npm-install an improvement over curl-pipe-bash?

Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#329
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Claude Code has whole game engine built into it. God knows why.

Tell us more.

perhaps they refer to Claude code being built on top of a React renderer for terminals, Ink https://github.com/vadimdemedes/ink

and is riddled with timeouts and intervals in useffects

Re: Zerostack – A Unix-inspired coding agent written in pure Rust

#330

Hmm, Claude Code and Opencode work fine for me. It's a bit amusing that coding agents rely on drawing 1000W+ and using 2TB+ of memory in a datacenter to run, yet people really focus on the last few watts and few hundred megabytes of memory on their laptop (which get dwarfed by the energy cost of compiling their code anyways). But I suppose making them a bit faster and lighter wouldn't hurt.

The data centre runs on a dedicated power line. My laptop runs on battery. Using coding agents currently drains battery quite fast, which is surprising, given that the vast majority of the work does not take place on my laptop. Making the client side coding agent more efficient isn't about saving the climate. It is about extending the workday (which might actually make the climate worse)

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