> This makes Rust hard, because you can’t just do the thing!
I'm a bit of a Rust fanboy because of writing so much Go and Javascript in the past. I think I just got tired of all the footguns and oddities people constantly run into but conveniently brush off as intentional by the design of the language. Even after years of writing both, I would still get snagged on Go's sharp edges. I have seen so many bugs with Go, written by seniors, because doing the thing seemed easy in code only for it to have unexpected behavior. This is where even after years of enjoying Go, I have a bit of a bone to pick with it. Go was designed to be this way (where Javascript/Typescript is attempting to make up for old mistakes). I started to think to myself: Well, maybe this shouldn't be "easy" because what I am trying to do is actually complicated behind the scenes.
I am not going to sit here and argue with people around language design or computer science. What I will say is that since I've been forced to be somewhat competent in Rust, I am a far better programmer because I have been forced to grasp concepts on a lower level than before. Some say this might not be necessary or I should have known these things before learning Rust, and I would agree, but it does change the way you write and design your programs. Rust is just as ugly and has snags that are frustrating like any other language, yes, but it was the first that forced me to really think about what it is I am trying to do when writing something that the compiler claims is a no-no. This is why I like Zig as well and the syntax alone makes me feel like there is space for both.
I'm a bit of a Rust fanboy because of writing so much Go and Javascript in the past. I think I just got tired of all the footguns and oddities people constantly run into but conveniently brush off as intentional by the design of the language. Even after years of writing both, I would still get snagged on Go's sharp edges. I have seen so many bugs with Go, written by seniors, because doing the thing seemed easy in code only for it to have unexpected behavior. This is where even after years of enjoying Go, I have a bit of a bone to pick with it. Go was designed to be this way (where Javascript/Typescript is attempting to make up for old mistakes). I started to think to myself: Well, maybe this shouldn't be "easy" because what I am trying to do is actually complicated behind the scenes.
I am not going to sit here and argue with people around language design or computer science. What I will say is that since I've been forced to be somewhat competent in Rust, I am a far better programmer because I have been forced to grasp concepts on a lower level than before. Some say this might not be necessary or I should have known these things before learning Rust, and I would agree, but it does change the way you write and design your programs. Rust is just as ugly and has snags that are frustrating like any other language, yes, but it was the first that forced me to really think about what it is I am trying to do when writing something that the compiler claims is a no-no. This is why I like Zig as well and the syntax alone makes me feel like there is space for both.