Think of it like "I couldn't have done it without you" when people accept awards. Sure they could have, it's just an expression of appreciation.

He might also not have chased the project if he weren't working in an ecosystem he particularly liked, so who knows, maybe it wouldn't have happened without Rust.

I disagree. I believe most people accepting awards really wouldn't have done it without other people.

Actors do not win Oscars doing great performances in bad movies.

Scientists do not win Nobel prizes working alone or in bad work conditions.

I always take these appreciations at face value.

Sure, makes sense. The original argument was that an ecosystem like Python's could have been a possible substitution for Rust, as an example, and therefore it was a baseless statement. Think the analogy with yours would be an equally good screenwriter or scientific collaborator. You need one, but technically maybe not exactly the one you had.

That said, not trying to undercut anyone's appreciative statements, especially the one from OP in his repo towards Rust! Obviously people (and programming languages, for that matter) aren't simple drop-in replacements for each other in real life. You have to be inspired and empowered by them.

That personal motivation or rapport component is probably what was being missed in the post to which I replied.

And programmers build on other peoples work. If you take away Rust? Sure he could have done it. If you take away previous work? No way.

No, it sounds like TabNine is built using a feature unique to Rust, which is not the case.

Yeah, you're right. Probably I didn't get the correct linguistic context.

But you never know, maybe in another language he would have done a much better project, maybe not. Actually, in alternative universes everything would probably be different. If Python didn't exist this project would maybe not exist too, and would be at least a little different in any case, so he could have opened the full version to Python codebases too, and that applies to all other languages.

And Rails could have been written in C. The reason why it wasn't should be clear. Different languages enable different ways of thinking, and what is hard to express in one can come out easily in another.

This is valid for both programming and human languages.

Not everyone has infinite time for development. If Rust was the only language they could get to the performance they want, with all the features, in the time available then the statement is valid.

Note that they talk about the ecosystem, not just the language. If you want a high performance, compiled language, with a good ecosystem of packages that you can leverage then Rust is a great choice. Arguably Go is the only other language that would fit the bill, but for some people the simpler type system doesn't allow the abstractions they want.

Theoretically we don't even need programming languages or compilers at all. REAL programmers used a magnetized needle and a steady hand. [1]

Following your logic, nobody should show appreciation for anything.

[1] https://xkcd.com/378/

what he meant is you could develop something similar in many other languages with the same complexity / time taken in rust.

I meant he could have said: "Because I love Rust, I'm giving this for free to be used in Rust codebases", instead of "this would never exist if not for Rust".

Or maybe he's serious, maybe the Rust ecosystem literally saved him from death or something like that.

Ah, got it! You were being literal and he was not. That's where the confusion is coming from. Your comment came across as mildly aggressive which is probably why you're getting downvoted, but you were just pointing out that what he said made no sense in literal terms which is true.

I don't think it was intended to be interpreted literally. The intent and the feeling behind what he was communicating was represented clearly.

The saying is perfectly standard and meaning has been granted equivalence to your alternative, through common usage. It’s really not a point worth making, or arguing.

Alternatively you could read it as “I wouldn’t have bothered doing this if rust wasn’t there.”