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by stjohnswarts 1581 days ago
Alas I had fun with rust and made some small apps but as I got deeper I just got scared off by the learning curve. I'm kind of over the hump with c++, javascript and python and I just couldn't do it again. Maybe I will revisit in a few years if it actually slows down.
1 comments

The language evolution speed has nothing whatsoever to do with the learning curve - there's like two major features a year, one of which is only for advanced users. The rolling release cycle just means the tiny incremental improvements arrive sooner. The learning curve has been in place since 1.0 and it only gets harder the more times you give up.
> language evolution speed has nothing whatsoever to do with the learning curve

I don't think that's true at all. Little by little, ergonomic changes make it in, that are actually quality of life improvements for the end user. Better error messages, smarter faster compiler, better idioms etc. These are all small, but they add up. For someone coming into the language cold, it can be the difference between a terrible experience and a decent one. No language was born perfect, so let's not pretend Rust is there, or even close.

Rust keeps making small usability improvements all the time, but the major improvements have already landed in the 2018 edition (smarter borrow checker, modules syntax, forgiving match patterns).
I think everyone in this thread can be in agreement:

* there are language and tooling improvements all the time, that make learning the language easier

* waiting to learn the language can make it easier due to the above

* if you learn Rust today the amount of things you need to learn going forward are few to none, the evolution of the language doesn't make your old knowledge useless