Re: Re: The Case for Rust (in the base system)

So just like Linux, FreeBSD is going to put the Rust compiler into the
system?
Just to put my own perspective into the mix, the same opinion I had for
Linux, and so many other projects: why Rust?

Just like Java and Microsoft Java (and by that I mean C#) in the 2000s,
Javascript and Python in the 2010s, and C++ in the 1990s, it looks like
Rust is the new fad language in the 2020s that will become irrelevent
somewhere in the 2030s, and there will be calls to rewrite legacy Rust
programs to whatever is the hip language in the 2030s until that goes
out of fashion by the 2040s.
My bet on what the 2030s hip language will be is probably Zig, and 2040s
would be Jai or Carbon, considering the pattern so far.

One argument I see a lot is to make stuff ready for the next generations
of programmers to take over as the older programmers retire, but as a
younger C developer, I can't see how C is harder than the language of
the decade.
On the contrary, I find it a lot easier to code in C, because as long as
you keep it simple (the hardest part for most programmers), all you need
is a text editor and a compiler, and you learn a lot about the hardware
you're working with along the way.

With Rust, the compiler stops you from destroying the memory, but will
never teach you how you can avoid that, simply because there's no
incentive in learning that.
In the short term this might be beneficial, but in the long term this
can be catastrophic, as the amount of people who understand hardware
declines, so does innovation, productivity, and even the ability to
maintain already existing software.

Of course FreeBSD is not my project, and the FreeBSD devs ultimately
decide its direction, but nobody has historically listened to me until
it was already way too late.
I just wanted to provide my input on the whole "rewrite programs that
work perfectly fine in Rust" mentality that has spun up in recent years,
which already affected compile times spectacularly in bad ways.

-- 
lain.

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