Re:Wuffs’ PNG image decoder
by kbenson on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @03:33PM
(#26729935)
Yes, I'm not against improving existing languages. I just don't think it's always sufficient, so we shouldn't accept the false dichotomy of improving existing languages or creating and promoting the use of new ones to take advantage of new ideas and technologies to their fullest.
Even if Rust were to fully supplant C and C++ for at least systems programming[1], we should hope that within a few decades it's a risk of being supplanted by something else. To want otherwise is likely to inadvertently want stagnation and/or a language that while likely still improving, is having new technologies and concepts bolted on in increasingly convoluted manner, as they were not and could not have been considered when designing the language originally.
1: I think this is unlikely, if only because I don't see one language supplanting C, I see C's market cannibalized by a few different languages, with C always retaining some use.
Even if Rust were to fully supplant C and C++ for at least systems programming[1], we should hope that within a few decades it's a risk of being supplanted by something else. To want otherwise is likely to inadvertently want stagnation and/or a language that while likely still improving, is having new technologies and concepts bolted on in increasingly convoluted manner, as they were not and could not have been considered when designing the language originally.
1: I think this is unlikely, if only because I don't see one language supplanting C, I see C's market cannibalized by a few different languages, with C always retaining some use.