@hrefna As far as I'm aware it brought memory safety into the mainstream for non-GC languages.
I'd love to see it displace C/C++, but it really doesn't look like competition for Python, Java, and to a lesser extent Go. Maybe these evangelists aren't really looking at that part of the spectrum when they think about Rust's "firsts".
Still, over-zealous, under-inderinformed enthusiasts are a PITA. I want Rust to succeed, and they don't help.
@sgf Yeah, that matches my impression as well, but it's also the same dance as ever: When Java started to be used on the server it was displacing C++ with a memory-safe alternative. That worked for some use cases but not others
Same with go, etc. Displacing some of the use cases of C++ but not others (that was its goal!) Then others that were already memory safe
Rust is ultimately a little closer to the metal, but it's still basically doing the same thing: Carving out part of C++'s use case.
@sgf We tend to forget that others started the same way over time—languages that were basically looking to supplant C++ in one way or another
Rust has some nice features in this regard for which it deserves credit, allowing it to reach use cases that the other languages have either struggled with or been unable to achieve
But from this perspective it isn't new or novel, it's just another in a long string of such attempts. Each of which have been partially successful and partially unsuccessful.
@hrefna I’m old enough to remember people insisting the performance overhead of automatic memory management and array bounds checks was simply too large for the new language to ever gain widespread adoption…in the 90s, and the language was Java.
@hrefna this is one of the things that actually really keeps me from loving rust. There is so much self righteousness if not overt, at least subjacent.
I don't feel comfortable in a community that constantly tries to dig at java or javascript, I don't need my language to be the first to do something. Some years ago I was called criminal because I mentioned working in C++.
@mnl Yeah, that precisely matches my experience with the community as well.
The community makes such a big difference in your experience with a language, especially when you are past the initial hurdles but not yet an expert. A period in which rust seems to take an unusually long (by the standards of programming languages) time to clear, making it even more important, if anything.
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