On Sat, Jul 25, 2026 at 11:58:18AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: > [email protected] [2026-07-25 06:25:30] wrote: > > Yes, but my question above: is it better? > > Somehow this wave reminds me of the last wave of Rust brigading. It > > tends to happen with new languages. I'll stay out of the way until > > it settles. > > I think programmers should learn more (and more diverse) languages, > regardless what language they end up using when they write code.
Definitely. Learning Lisp has made my C better. Learning diverse OO languages has made my C better. > Rust is very definitely among the top of the list of the languages that > are worth learning for that reason (along with Prolog, Haskell, Scheme, > C, ...). Javascript and Python come *way* further down the list > (because they don't have very many noteworthy features not already > present in most other languages). Hm. Javascript is somewhat interesting in that it kind of delivers on Self's promise of the 1980ies that you can write a language as a naive interpteter and somehow do the efficient compiling later. With that fly in the ointment that said compiler is so intimidatingly complex and slow that you end up having to have (at least) two of them in practice: one compiling quick and doing a sloppy optimisation job, the other, which you only use when "you've seen that code spot already a couple of times". > I have strong reservations w.r.t the Rust "ecosystem", but that > shouldn't be confused with the Rust language itself. I feel exactly the same wrt. the first. As to the second... I don't know. This affine types thing is neat, but for managed languages (Common Lisp, I'm looking at you!) turns out to solve a non-problem -- and don't tell me modern GCs are slow. For very small embedded systems... but then I'd stick to C. C is somewhat of a nightmare for huge monoliths with many cooks stirring the soup (someone said Linux kernel?), so there the important thing is to enforce compartmentalisation and clearly defined interfaces at the boundaries, so more of an architecture thing. Rust has yet to prove itself at this level. Paint me sceptic. I am fatally reminded of an anti-pattern I've seen in many corporate contexts which I've come to call "redemption by tool". Cheers -- t
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