Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

news.ycombinator.com

1–10 of 11 posts

Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

#1
I recently posted on HN about my new app and mentioned that I used Rust to make it.

There were quite a few comments in a tone like I've offended their mother because I said the word "Rust".

What is it about?

I've never seen anything like this regarding other tool/programming language...

Re: Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

#4
It's not like there is aversion overall; you're seeing two effects:

1. people being really excited by Rust, learning Rust, using it for hobby projects, rewriting things in Rust etc.

1.1. sometimes the excitement has downsides - people get carried way, they get too preachy, they exaggerate how good it is, they insist on using Rust in places where it doesn't belong, they refuse to listen to criticism, they bring it up any time programming languages are discussed, they start acting a bit cult-ish

2. as a result of 1.1, when a positive Rust post comes up some people will have a negative reaction. Sometimes it's negative in a reasonable way that counteracts the exaggerated excitement and sometimes it's a more general feeling of "oh not this again".

So some people have aversion to Rust some of the time, there's still plenty of other people who like Rust or don't care too much about it either way.

Re: Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

#5
post #4

It's not like there is aversion overall; you're seeing two effects: 1. people being really excited by Rust, learning Rust, using it for hobby projects, rewriting things in Rust etc. 1.1. sometimes the excitement has downsides - people get carried way, they get too preachy, they exaggerate how good it is, they insist on using Rust in places where it doesn't belong, they refuse to listen to criticism, they bring it up…

But I feel like there's some deeper story about Rust that I've missed and am out of the loop now.

Well, to me Rust is just a tool that I've discovered, it meet my expectations so I started using it.

Only then I've started noticing comments on reddit or whatever like "bleh, not Rust again" and really don't get why a programming language can be so triggering to people.

Re: Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

#6
post #5
post #4

It's not like there is aversion overall; you're seeing two effects: 1. people being really excited by Rust, learning Rust, using it for hobby projects, rewriting things in Rust etc. 1.1. sometimes the excitement has downsides - people get carried way, they get too preachy, they exaggerate how good it is, they insist on using Rust in places where it doesn't belong, they refuse to listen to criticism, they bring it up…

But I feel like there's some deeper story about Rust that I've missed and am out of the loop now. Well, to me Rust is just a tool that I've discovered, it meet my expectations so I started using it. Only then I've started noticing comments on reddit or whatever like "bleh, not Rust again" and really don't get why a programming language can be so triggering to people.

Honestly I think jstx1 nailed it. There have been a lot of posts here and elsewhere of the form "I [re]wrote ${mundane tool} in Rust!" and while there's nothing wrong with that people (especially ones NOT interested in Rust) are tired of it. I felt the same way about Erlang a few years back. So it's part of the natural ebb and flow I think.

Re: Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

#7
Reading the thread it seems people complain that the source code is not available, and that posting this (very nice) app using the "Rust" keyword might therefore be perceived as clickbait, as people would of course like to see how it's done in Rust. I tend to agree as I would like to learn more about the app (since I've done Rust development for mobile and am curious how e.g. you generate bindings etc.), but unfortunately that seems nowhere to be found.

Re: Ask HN: What is this aversion to Rust on online forums about?

#10
post #9

I hate Rust. It's too time inefficient and hard to learn and the error messages don't make sense. There is already too mich choice in tools to use and its community is very Hipster.

It has a steep learning curve, no two ways about it.

In return you get a lot of power, and eliminate several broad categories of bug for zero performance cost. How many competing tools offer that?

Personally I find the errors quite helpful, but I come from the land of late 90s C++ template vomit...

If you want to build a webapp it's probably a daft choice (for example) but for several other wide categories of software it's truly groundbreaking.

Post reply on HN