Re:Using Rust to Make a Safer Interface for Yahoo’s Fast MDB...
by doomrobo on Monday December 15, 2014 @10:20AM
(#8752365)
It seems like this is the ideal use case for Rust. I understand the allure of type safety and everything that the Rust compiler can guarantee but I think the sheer difficulty and complexity it creates (and it does necessarily create complexity sometimes) makes it somewhat prohibitive. So maybe Rust's niche lies in smaller memory-sensitive roles?
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Re:Using Rust to Make a Safer Interface for Yahoo’s Fast MDB...
by steveklabnik on Monday December 15, 2014 @10:43AM
(#8752493)
While it's true it adds complexity, I actually think it's _easier_ than C or C++. This is because the compiler can help you reason about these things. In those languages, you are on your own.
Coming from a managed language, yes, it's a bit harder.
What I've found is that there's an initial hump, but then it gets easy. I haven't had a serious fight with the borrow checker in a while. I'd say I'm about 70% as productive with Rust as I am with Ruby, and most of that missing stuff is due to a lack of libraries, not due to the language itself.
I also am less likely to try the kinds of unsafe-but-i-know-they're-safe things that someone doing C++ for the last decade would, so that might bias my opinion.