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

[Galen]

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.
> 
> 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.
> 

This has become another incarnation of  The Thread That Would Not Die.