C is 52 years old; C++ is nearly 40. That's more than a generation. Yet, I'd bet that there are more up-and-coming developers learning C/C++ than Rust today.

The problem isn't just personal preference or inertia. It's that all mainstream OSes, libraries, and system software are written in C/C++. You can't exactly ignore this and not learn the language if you want to work in this space.

Of course, there are many developers who don't work with system-level stuff, and they may be perfectly fine just knowing Java or JavaScript, but Rust is not positioning itself as a direct competitor to that.

The world has lots of important COBOL. You’re dead on. Even if everyone committed to all new code in Rust tomorrow, C/C++ will be around for a LONG time.

There’s just too much pre-existing code.

How is "too much existing software uses C/C++" not just inertia? That can also change with time.

Inertia is doing things because you're used to doing them. This is pragmatism: until the arrival of mainstream Rust-based OSes, there's probably no escaping C/C++.

My point is that the arrival of Rust-based OSes is absolutely in the cards, so while I don't disagree that it would be very difficult to fully escape at the moment that is also actively changing.

> This is a problem that will resolve itself with time as C developers retire and new projects start in Rust.

Respectfully, this is wishful thinking.

C programmers aren’t going anywhere any time soon. There are millions upon millions upon millions lines of C code everywhere running critical software, firmware, infrastructure, etc. that won’t be rewritten in Rust any time soon.

From my perspective (college student), it is true that there is godly amount of C code in the world which would remain true for a long long time. In similar sense there are also quite a lot of new java developers who maintain the millions of lines of java code.

However a lot of new infrastructure is being developed in rust. Infact it can be argued that the very reason it should be in rust is because it is critical. I think there would be great value if a person can efficiently thread between both rust and c rather than competing.

Java is not an old “maintain the code” language as you seem to imply. Despite not being the new hotness for about 25 years it’s an extremely useful and productive language and I assure you there are tons and tons of new things being written in it every day. The language is still evolving and has been getting great improvements. Yeah it has some warts, but it’s been running and keeping backwards compatibility for 30 years despite evolving.

Many seem to forget all the time, that the Java ecosystem powers the most widely sold mobile OS platform across the globe.

Including me! I was referring to server stuff, since server side Java is my job and thus front of mind.

But you’re dead right. At this point Android apps may be the bigger set of code. Or at least put up a good fight.

The entire graphics driver for Apple Silicon Macs in Linux, with zero memory bugs in the code despite being deployed to a large number of machines. including a fully conformant OpenGL implementation and most/all of Vulkan (I’ve lost track of the current state).

> Infact it can be argued that the very reason it should be in rust is because it is critical. I think there would be great value if a person can efficiently thread between both rust and c rather than competing.

I fully agree with that.

There are a ridiculous number of greenfield Java projects being started every day. Far more than Rust by orders of magnitude.