142
'Rust makes coding fun again': Why Linux is moving away from C, according to Greg Kroah-Hartman (www.zdnet.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/rust@programming.dev
63 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 27 points 3 months ago (15 children)

Look, undeniably some coding languages are miles better than others, but I don't think any of them would fall under my personal classification of what the word "fun" means...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 15 child comments
    •
  • [–] 52 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Different strokes I guess. Personally, I do have a good time writing Rust and fun feels like the right word

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 24 points 3 months ago*

    Yeah, same. The fact I can chill the fuck out and basically not have to worry about an enormous class of serious, hard-to-spot bugs makes it a lot more fun for lower-level programming.

    Like, yeah, I still need to worry about obstacles like other drivers, animals, etc., but it's a lot more fun driving on a road that isn't completely teeming with potholes and black ice.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Yup. I come from a mostly embedded C or C++ background with a constant 10% Python for assorted scripts. Rust feels pretty great, basically all the things I like about all of those languages with fewer of the annoyances. And cargo and clippy are fantastic. My biggest annoyance is remembering which of the approximately 213 Result/Option chain handlers I should use in a given situation.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Thanks for naming my biggest problem with writing rust code. Every crate has it's own particular Result chain, doesn't it. To the point we have anyhow and eyre to help with this mess.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    My current solution is usually to just make a bunch of stupid match statements and fix whatever clippy complains about. Then if any remain be sure to “accidentally“ tag the friendliest rust expert I know on the PR and see if they say anything.

    edit: They usually say something like, “you could replace those matches with a and_else, map_err, unwrap_or, and_then? and a filter_map.”

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 14 points 3 months ago

    Fun is when you're allowed to achieve what you want to achieve with less bullshit to worry about.

    Or in more respectable technical terms, when you're allowed to focus on core logic above everything else.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago*

    It was fun when knowing programming was almost a superpower that you had to learn by reading lots of books, etc. Now a computer can do much of the job. The computers are even solving long-open Erdos problems. We're all just mediocre meatbags.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -2 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    Except for C

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    C is firmly in the "not fun" camp with PHP, JavaScript and Bash. I'd say even assembly is more fun, in a puzzle challenge sort of way.

    The most fun language I've used is QuakeC, because the only thing you can do with it is write Quake mods. It was a pretty neat language too from what I remember. It even automatically detected infinite loops!

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago* (5 children)

    We all have different definitions of "fun." C won't surprise you when you try to add a string and an array; it'll do exactly what you told it to do, which then translates to assembly code with a very predictable pattern.

    On a different note, bash scripting is well-defined and mostly consists of understanding that common tools can be chained together to provide useful output; combined with the very well-defined string operations, I've found that bash scripts can address over 99% of cases people try to throw sed and awk at. It's almost surprisingly powerful.

    JavaScript is just a hot fucking mess.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    C won’t surprise you...

    Lol... I'm sure there's a meme or graph for where you are in learning C to believe this.

    then translates to assembly code with a very predictable pattern.

    Even this is a stretch. Modern C compilers can do some wild transformations. I assume you've seen the classic one where UB makes it jump to a function that you never actually call.

    bash scripting is well-defined

    Yeah I mean Bash's problem isn't that it's poorly defined - it's that the definition is awful!

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I've been programming for 35 years, and professionally for over 20, so I'm pretty far along the curve, thanks.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •