Comment by somenameforme
3 months ago
> "I really like Rust as a replacement for C++, especially given that C++ seems to become crazier every year."
I don't understand this argument, which I've also seen it used against C#, quite frequently. When a language offers new features, you're not forced to use them. You generally don't even need to learn them if you don't want. I do think some restrictions in languages can be highly beneficial, like strong typing, but the difference is that in a weakly typed language that 'feature' is forced upon you, whereas random new feature in C++ or C# is near to always backwards compatible and opt-in only.
For instance, to take a dated example - consider move semantics in C++. If you never used it anywhere at all, you'd have 0 problems. But once you do, you get lots of neat things for free. And for these sort of features, I see no reason to ever oppose their endless introduction unless such starts to imperil the integrity/performance of the compiler, but that clearly is not happening.
You can't avoid a lot of this stuff, once libraries start using it or colleagues add it to your codebase then you need to know it. I'd argue you need to know it well before you decide to exclude it.
Then better be quite picky of what libraries one choses, because that is the thing, while we may not use them, the libraries migth impose them on us.
Same applies having to deal with old features, replaced by modern ways, old codebases don't get magically rewritten, and someone has to understand modern and old ways.
Likewise I am not a big fan of C and Go, as visible by my comment history, yet I know them well enough, because in theory I am not forced to use them, in practice, there are business contexts where I do have to use them.
My experience with C++ is that it fundamentally "looks worse" and has worse tooling than more modern languages. And it feels like they keep adding new features that make it all even worse every year.
Sure, you don't have to use them, but you have to understand them when used in libraries you depend on. And in my experience in an environment of C++ developers, many times you end up having some colleagues who are very vocal about how you should love the language and use all the new features. Not that this wouldn't happen in Java or Kotlin, but the fact is that new features in those languages actually improve the experience with the language.
I'm a C++ developer and it's always great when we move to a newer language version, with all the language improvements that come with that.