News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on “Rewrite It in Rust” Considered Harmful? [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:“Rewrite It in Rust” Considered Harmful? [pdf] by bcrosby95 on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @12:47PM (#36060760)
Imagine you only have a rock. A rock can be used for many things. You can use it to open a can, you can use it to smash things, you can use it to drive a nail.

Then someone invents a hammer. You no longer use a rock for driving nails.

Then someone invents a can opener. You no longer use a rock for opening cans.

Then someone invents gigantic sledge hammers. You no longer use a rock to smash things.

Languages definitely have competitors. Java took a lot of projects that would have otherwise been written in C++. Rust will take a lot of projects that would have otherwise been written in C or C++, but languages like Java weren't suitable for. Eventually, those two languages might be completely supplanted (but it would take a very long time). Because they lost to competitors in each space.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:“Rewrite It in Rust” Considered Harmful? [pdf] by JohnFen on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @12:56PM (#36060896)
Yeah, I'm not so sure. Certainly there are many cases where a language was used for a type of project when it isn't ideal -- but it was the best option. A new language can come along and replace the old for that sort of project. But I don't really see that as "competing" in any meaningful sense. It's just that someone invented a better kind of screwdriver for that kind of screw.

Some languages can certainly become obsolete (although even then, I'm hard pressed to think of a language that is no longer used at all) or relegated to very niche uses, of course.

[ Parent | on HN ]