[cyberprunes]

Disagree. Sure rust has a notable syntax tax (not what it used to be) but that's the easy part! It's the concepts and mindset that are the biggest hurdle in Rust. Going to C++ first won't help you there. If you already know it, great but Rust is a different language and you'll spend a lot time trying to transfer C++isms over until you realize writing effective Rust is not like writing effective C++ and you go through a process of unlearning. In my view, learning C++ for the purpose of learning Rust is massive waste of time.

[peterkos]

> Rust is a different language and you'll spend a lot time trying to transfer C++isms over until you realize writing effective Rust is not like writing effective C++ and you go through a process of unlearning

Ding ding ding! However I do think that the combination of syntax with the brand new concepts just adds that extra layer of complexity. A similar thing is Optionals in Swift -- the syntax is so baked into the language that even if you really understand how optionals work, the syntactic sugar keeps piling up in different situations. (i.e., first the ? operator, then implicitly unwrapped optionals, then if lets, guards, guard lets...)