[Info-vax] Rust as a HS language, was: Re: Quiet?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2022-04-03, plugh <jchimene at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Perhaps this will stimulate a discussion
>
> https://highassurance.rs

There are 3 things that switch me off from considering Rust as a HA language.
These 3 things are more important than any specific advantages that Rust
might have over other programming languages.

1) The syntax. It's horrible and imposes a higher cognitive load than
it needs to when you are looking at something new or revisiting old code.
That means you are more likely to miss something or work a lot harder
than you need to in order to understand the code.

One of the official Ada RMs/Style Guides/etc had it right when it pointed
out that you write the code once but read it many times. The Rust people
have forgotten this.

2) No official ISO or similar language standard I can rely on 5/10/20 years
from now when I need to work on my safety or general production critical
code at that point.

Even though many of the Rust people appear not to understand this, the
lack of those guarantees is a _massive_ problem in the real world.

3) Unlike mainstream programming languages, the Rust community always
seems to be lurching from one social drama to the next.

That in itself is an instant switchoff because the community is one
major social crisis away from falling apart (at least until it's then
rebuilt and a new direction emerges).

You can't rely on a programming language when something like that is
a real possibility. You wouldn't see social crisis stuff on the C/C++/Ada
language standards groups for example.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.