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by kurtbuilds 1363 days ago
I'd recommend going full steam ahead with Rust.

Companies like Azure and Meta now recommend Rust as either one of several viable choices, or THE recommended option, for the use cases you describe, including CLI and web servers.

Personally at this point, just about anything that's not a frontend (android, ios, web), I think Rust is the best language for the job. It's the language I prefer, and feel most productive in, for the use cases you're describing (web server, CLI, small scripts and utils).

There's a learning curve, but at this point, I almost entirely forget about the lack of GC. It feels like writing code in any other language - except of course with all the benefits you call out (no null, ADT, typed error values, trait-based OO system, the best tooling of any language I've used, expansive 3rd party libraries).
2 comments
aussiesnack 1360 days ago
I'd recommend that only for those who know that they are in the top 5% or so of programmers (as HN is almost by definition a self-selected DK hothouse, I realise this can be a hard judgement to make, but a bit of self-reflection can go a long way). I'm a below to average programmer, and don't believe I'll ever be able to understand Rust well enough to use it productively. I have my reasons to nonetheless still be teaching myself Rust, but expected fluency is not among those reasons. Rust is just too hard for most programmers, and literally every non-'star' I've known (other than myself!) has given up on it.

If, self-deception aside, you really are a superior programmer, it's an excellent tool, a joy to use, and is going to be a good choice for an increasingly wide spread of domains.

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spoils19 1363 days ago
It's crazy how many good GUI libraries there are as well, I've played around migrating some heavier applications and the experience was absolutely painless.
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hobofan 1363 days ago
Which ones do you mean? That is the first time I've had someone express a positive sentiment regarding the state of GUIs in Rust.

I would say that I've tried most of them and they are all varying levels of aweful right now.

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