Comment by ephaeton
6 months ago
I'm sharing sentiment.
C++ feels like a language of bean counters.
Rust feels like a language of bean counters.
A lot of C++ folks I know went over to rust.
They were happy with C++ and it was the best thing since sliced bread.
They are now happy with rust and it is the best thing since sliced bread.
To me, languages have a, let's call it 'taste' for the lack of better word off the top of my head. It's that combining quality that pg called 'hacker's languages', such as C, and lisp, for example.
C++ feels like a bureaucratic monster with manual double bookkeeping, byzanthine, baroque, up to outright weird and contradictory in places. Ever since rust was conceived, I gave it multiple shots to learn. When I was not thrown off by what I perceive as java-style annotations, i.e., something orthogonal to the language itself where no one seems to have bothered to come to a consensus to be able to express this from the language itself, its general feel reminds me of something a C++ embracer will feel comfortable in. I.e., in pg's words, not a hacker's language, paired with a crusade of personal enlightenment. What used to be OO and GoF now is memory safety as-implemented-by-rust (note: not by borrow checker, we could've had this with cyclone, for example, more than two decades ago).
I have, in my original comment, marked this as my personal opinion and feeling, as is the above. I'm not arguing. I love FP and the idea of having a systems language with FP concepts working out to memory safety and higher level expression sounds like the holy grail of yester-me. I'm disappointed I couldn't find my professional salvation in rust with how uneasy I feel within the language. It's as if a suit and tie was forced on me, or a hawaii shirt and shorts (depending on your preference, image it's the thing you wouldn't voluntarily wear).
Now, if other folks also mirror my observation of how the folks flock from C++ to rust, you bet they take their mindset and pedestal with them to stand on and preach off of. At least those I know do, only their sermon changed from C++ to rust, the quality of their dogma remained constant.
> C++ feels like a language of bean counters.
> Rust feels like a language of bean counters.
Gotcha! I just didn't make the connection, when I read your comment I thought "what does a list of C++ features + the idea that people left it because they didn't like where it's going mean that the two languages are the same?"
I wasn't interested in arguing either, I was just trying to understand what you meant, and now I do. Thank you for sharing.
Rust was definitely created as an alternative to C++, but I don't really get your criticism. Unless you're just saying you don't like robust languages with very strong type systems or something?
Rust wasn't designed by committee.
To me, Rust feels as if it had sprung from the same mind. Or in the case of C++, set of minds. Who have a common mindset. I sadly don't critize rust's general design choices constructively. It's more of a public realization, '"C++ mind-set compatible" might just be the quality to describe the specific aroma I dislike in this melange".
I'm fine with robust languages with very strong type systems, I think. Are Haskell, ML, F#, Scala in this set? Robust and very strongly typed enough? I don't dislike their taste, even though I think I've had enough scala, specifically, for this life time. If these aren't in the set you're thinking of, I'd like to know what makes up that set for you.