The bane of Intel CPUs, and a trigger word for C geriatrics.
Back in my day we coded in assembly and we liked it that way!
Back in my day I didn’t code at all and I liked it that way!
(My day was today)
A source of entertainment in the Linux kernel mailing list
What is the issue with Intel CPUs? I’m OOTL here.
Some of their 13th and 14th generation CPUs have manufacturing defects that resulted in oxidation. In some use cases (servers and such), failure rates sometimes reached 50%. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdmK1UGzGs
and they kept denying there was an issue, until there was so much proof that they couldn’t deny it any more and were like “okay fine there’s an issue so we’re going to be extra generous and extend your warranty one whole year”
They were probably trying to run out the warranty period. (for legal reasons, this is speculation)
In countries like Australia that have good consumer protection, they’d have to replace failed CPUs even outside of the warranty period, because they’ve still failed in a time frame shorter than a regular person would expect a CPU to last. The USA really needs better consumer laws.
Not what, who. He’s the protagonist of True Detective S1.
Golang is better for many things
If you’re dealing with backend stuff
Golang is almost never the best choice
Rust has readability issues
Golang isn’t perfect but it does improve readability thus maintainably.
I’m not saying Rust is better for all applications, but IMO Golang has a pretty bad readability due to the “simplicity” they keep adhering to. Heck, even their generics support is still pretty terrible, and that’s a fundamental feature for properly readable code.
HOW IS THIS THE ONLY MENTION OF THE FUNGUS!?
I know, right? It turns up on the sorrel in my garden every year
Something that deteriorates the structural integrity of load-bearing frameworks /s.
Being serious, it’s another programming languages that is gaining popularity. Others can expand on why it’s good. I’ve never used it myself so I can’t comment in good faith. I also don’t have any experience with Rust-bros so I can’t comment on their code quality. I’ve mostly just been watching amused as they fight with the Linux development community.
We used to have good, strong open source tools made out of C (which is a lot like steel - it can only be worked by blue collar computer nerds with muscly brains). Now that steel core is corroding because of the influence of hackers and other white collar computer sorts with their creative problem solving, and unintended uses of memory.
That new corrosion is called rust, and it eventually appears on every C project that’s left outside, unless someone comes along to brush it off occasionally.
It’s a programming language, which is particularly relevant for Linux, because it doesn’t require a runtime (separate program that runs the code). This allows it to be used in the kernel.
But it also means that it’s very good for building libraries. With a small bit of extra work, virtually any other programming language can call libraries implemented in Rust (like you can with libraries implemented in C).
Add to that, that Rust allows for performance similar to C and makes lots of typical C bugs impossible, and suddenly you’ve got folks rewriting all kinds of C libraries and applications in Rust, which is something you might have also heard about.Thank you for the informative response. I knew rust was a programming language, but didn’t know it’s significance.
Ah yes, the C bugs in the kernel libraries. We’ve all seen them.
Plenty of patched memory leaks in the last few years. You can pretend they dont exist.
Ah yes, intentionally misunderstanding someone’s comment. We’ve all seen them.
I mean, what the heck is this passive-aggressive comment? If you disagree with me, then come at me.
It’s for programmers who need their Imposter Syndrome amplified.
Rust is both a nice programming language, and an obnoxious social movement made of a small minority of Rust programmers who are very loud
small minority of Rust programmers who are very loud
They also list “written in Rust” as the primary feature of software they write, even though the majority of users don’t care as long as it works properly.
It matters to potential contributors. It’s also a floating signifier for a lot of things.
The majority of users aren’t contributors though. It’s fine to mention it in contributor documentation but I find it weird to advertise it as an end-user feature given most apps written in other languages don’t do this.
It’s also a floating signifier for a lot of things.
Like what?
A program being written in rust itself doesn’t guarantee anything, but it tells you what you’ll probably find:
- Utf-8 support
- No shenanigans with installations, dynamic libraries and such. Just download and execute.
- Multi-platform support
- Low resource usage.
- semver.
- Compile with just 1 command if you want to.
- MIT/apache2 license.
- No memory leaks.
- If it crashes, at least it will probably log out something more helpful than “SEGFAULT”.
Many of those are highly positive to the end consumer.
Most of those points are true for programs written in Go too, and C# (if you use Native AoT).
who are very loud
Most of the “should we or should we not” discourses/dramas I’ve read about were initiated or escalated by the anti-Rust crowd. They seem to be a lot more vocal (not to mention impolite) about their opinions than actual Rust developers.
Specifically in the Linux kernel, the 2 big reasons to use it are memory safety (huuuuggee benefit) and that a lot of younger devs like it and thus it will attract their contributions.
The only reasons I can think of to not use it are that some people want their own toolchain and having multiple languages in the kernel adds complication. But tbh, none of that justifies banning Rust stuff that realistically wouldn’t have been written at all if C were the only option.
And then there’s the people who show up in Phoronix, HN, Reddit, and YouTube comments saying Rust is over-hyped without showing why it’s unfit for purpose and also trying to dictate what someone does with their own project. Perhaps it’s something to do with the representation of queer people and other minorities in the Rust community, because otherwise I do not understand why people would be sooo passionate in hating the Rust community like the group I described above is.
having multiple languages in the kernel adds complication.
which is why we should simply rewrite the whole kernel in rust. boom problem fixed 😎 /j
a lot of younger devs like it and thus it will attract their contributions.
You get it! That is probably the biggest “soft” factor for why I want to see Rust proliferate. Nobody wants to learn C! It’s an ancient, cumbersome language that is difficult to use in a secure way. I’ve been both a student and an employee at a university with many programming-related classes, and beyond the absolute basics of memory management, nobody does anything in C, or even C++. It’s almost always C#, Java, Javascript, or Python. No Rust yet because most of our teachers are also geriatrics.
Linux (and FOSS in general) has an age issue. Prolific older developers are leaving their projects or transitioning to less code-focused tasks, and the ranks are not being filled. Prospective young developers simply bounce off projects because of steep entry requirements, and the active resistance of anti-Rust evangelists (the likes of Christoph Hellwig for example) doesn’t help either.
oh I don’t consider them obnoxious. I’m from Python-land, they’ve been saving our asses with good tooling lol. the quality of output from the rust ecosystem speaks for itself
uv <3
That’s rather rude and untrue … the programming language isn’t at all nice! /s
ducks and runs away
It’s for people who suffer from severe anxiety when they see stuff like:
->or*for example. /j->*
removed by mod
removed by mod
It’s a multiplayer survival game in the vein of Minecraft.
That’s a nice way to put it. I call it more of a Noob Murder Simulator
Rust is a programming language designed to run on crabs. It just happens to also run on computers. When rust programmers talk about the borrow checker, that’s something born directly out of having to run on crabs. It’s difficult to get the little guys to cooperate otherwise. And when they talk about rust having good error messages that’s because of the crabs too. The compiler is not just some piece of software, it’s a piece of software being run on crabs and the crabs have some measure of intuition to them. Basically what I’m saying is that carcinization applies to computer hardware.
Rust is when you run DOOM on 16 billion crabs. You can’t do that in other languages. Just ask Amelia Airheart.
Is it not Earhart?
Why would someone name themselves ear deer?
Rust is iron oxide, mostly used to make thermite
It’s a cult.
Have you heard of our lord and savior memory management?
No, not those other false gods
cargocult
