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

[Dan Cross]

In article <t2eo9n$mj7$1 at dont-email.me>,
Simon Clubley  <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>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.

Let's take a look.

>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.

Surely this is subjective?

>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.

This is a valid 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.

But this is just insulting to the Rust people.  They aren't
fools.  They understand the value of standards, but they're
still evolving the language.  A standard will come in time.

>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.

Oh really?  It seems that the C++ community just went through a
bit of social "drama" with a convicted sex offender being
invited to a conference.  Someone objected; that person was
shouted down.  Chaos ensued.

In fact, I can't think of a language community that hasn't had
some kind of "drama" over the last 30 years or so that I've
been paying attention.

	- Dan C.