Comment by burntsushi
9 months ago
The initial version of ripgrep was absolutely a rapid prototype.
I do rapid prototyping all the time.
I'm not saying Rust is good for game dev, but the idea that Rust cannot be used for rapid prototyping in any context is a myth.
Indeed, I personally find Rust to be very nice for rapid prototyping, incremental recompilation is usually a second or two even in my giant projects (mold helps on the linking step but that's less of a rust thing anyway), and I'm very curious how cranelift will change things in the future, it would be nice to hot swap function implementations on the fly at least.
Are there any particular techniques or styles that stand out to you as useful when prototyping in Rust?
`clone()` and `unwrap()` and `todo!()` without fear. Just let it loose.
For me, prototyping is, IMO, about finding shortcuts to demonstrate something that is unknown to you. The idea is that shortcuts represent things you know how to do, but would otherwise take work to avoid and aren't necessary for demonstrating the thing that is unknown. `clone()` and `unwrap()` are just Rust-specific examples of that.