>> Yes, you can use it everywhere. Is that what you consider a success?
> ... yes?
Then perhaps you and I define success differently? As I've said in other comments above, C persisting or really standing still is not what I would think of as a winning and vibrant community. And the moving embedded and kernel development from what was previously a monoculture to something more diverse could be a big win for developers. My hope is that competition from Rust makes using C better/easier/more productive, but I have my doubts as to whether it will move C to make changes.
Sometimes it's nice to know that something will run and compile reliably far into the future. That's a nice thing to have, and wide support for the language and its relatively unchanging nature make it reliable.
> Sometimes it's nice to know that something will run and compile reliably far into the future.
I'm not sure why you think this is a problem that Rust has? Perhaps you mean something different but the Rust project compiles available code on crate.io upon the release of a new version.[0] C compilers may imagine their new compiler code doesn't break old software, but Rust takes that extra step, so we know it won't.
Now, the Rust kernel is currently using beta and nightly features which are on track for inclusion in the stable Rust compiler. So, yes, right now compilation is tied to a specific kernel version, and may need to be updated if a feature changes. However, any C compiler used to compile the Linux kernel uses non-standard GCC extensions only recently adopted by clang. Imagine if the C standards committee chose to change the syntax/sematics of a non-standard extension. Do you not imagine the non-standard extension would also be similarly deprecated?
The issue seems to be Rust is telling you what is non-standard, and you're yelling "Look it's non-standard!". But consider that the kernel in practice is using lots of non-standard features, and should the C standard simply adopt this non-standard behavior that means likely having to changes lots of code.
>> Yes, you can use it everywhere. Is that what you consider a success?
> ... yes?
Then perhaps you and I define success differently? As I've said in other comments above, C persisting or really standing still is not what I would think of as a winning and vibrant community. And the moving embedded and kernel development from what was previously a monoculture to something more diverse could be a big win for developers. My hope is that competition from Rust makes using C better/easier/more productive, but I have my doubts as to whether it will move C to make changes.
Sometimes it's nice to know that something will run and compile reliably far into the future. That's a nice thing to have, and wide support for the language and its relatively unchanging nature make it reliable.
> Sometimes it's nice to know that something will run and compile reliably far into the future.
I'm not sure why you think this is a problem that Rust has? Perhaps you mean something different but the Rust project compiles available code on crate.io upon the release of a new version.[0] C compilers may imagine their new compiler code doesn't break old software, but Rust takes that extra step, so we know it won't.
Now, the Rust kernel is currently using beta and nightly features which are on track for inclusion in the stable Rust compiler. So, yes, right now compilation is tied to a specific kernel version, and may need to be updated if a feature changes. However, any C compiler used to compile the Linux kernel uses non-standard GCC extensions only recently adopted by clang. Imagine if the C standards committee chose to change the syntax/sematics of a non-standard extension. Do you not imagine the non-standard extension would also be similarly deprecated?
The issue seems to be Rust is telling you what is non-standard, and you're yelling "Look it's non-standard!". But consider that the kernel in practice is using lots of non-standard features, and should the C standard simply adopt this non-standard behavior that means likely having to changes lots of code.
[0]: https://github.com/rust-lang/crater