[jamiedumont]

As a certified grumpy old developer I spent years writing off the "X but in Rust" projects, but I have to confess that a lot of good things with meaningful improvements have come from the rewrite-everything-in-Rust movement.

I've not used Typst and not authored much LaTeX (but worked on a project with a group of scientists who used nothing but LaTeX) and can see obvious advantages to Typst. Same with many, many other Rust libraries.

[chaxor]

I think that typically a rewrite in, well anything, can be helpful - simply because the first write wasn't sure of what may work or what the correct model for the system should be, or how to handle specific parts of the system etc.

A rewrite in Rust can be good for those reasons, as it removes the "cruft" of old implementation, but also gets the nice properties of speed and such.

But ultimately the thing I love most about Rust is not even the safety and such - it's the package management and build system. Just look at the horrible python/js scene for how bad packaging and build systems can be, and you'll understand why that basic uniform experience can be so nice.

[kuschkufan]

So funny to me that people assume, oh it's written in Rust, so it must be a rewrite of something else just so they can use Rust.

They never imagine that people choose Rust for something they want to implement anyway and not just to replicate something existing, that they do not want to use since it's not implemented in Rust????

[jamiedumont]

Oh I know there's loads of original Rust work, but you have to acknowledge that the "X, but in Rust" trope exists.

[reaperman]

Yep even as a big fan of it...it's definitely a trope. And one that's very easy to either dismiss or make fun of. It would be a bit strange for fans to feel defensiveness or denial over that.

[avgcorrection]

jamiedumont let out a rambonctious laugh to himself.

- Ah, you got me good you meddling kids!

jamiedumont was talking to himself again.

hackerbod slowly leaned over and squinted at the screen.

- Uh Typst?

- Yeah! It’s a typesetting markup language. It’s supposed to be better than things like latex.

- Ok. What’s so funny about it?

- Oh hehe, it’s written in—guess what?

- I dunno?

- Rust!

jamiedumont started giggling but hackerbod remained neutrally unamused.

- Oh come on! Rewrite in Rust? Language zealots? Young adults who can’t program without some Ruby syntax sprinkled in?

- So this “typt” thing—

- Typst.

- Right, Typst, this typesetting thing was created to promote Rust in some way?

- Oh I don’t think so.

- It doesn’t mention Rust on the homepage or something? You know, Written in Rust?

- Nope. Not to my recollection.

- So is it a rewrite of something else in—

- Nope.

- So then what does that have to do with—

- Ah, but you’re missing the bigger picture, hackerbod.

- Ok.

- Year after year of this eye-rolling promotion and nagging, blah blah blah memory unsafety is bad, blah blah this is why we used angle brackets for generics, and these sly bastards went and pulled off the most epic Trojan Horse that I’ve ever seen been—

- And what’s that?

- They made an actually useful language!

hackerbod had to scoot back as jamiedumont fell off his swivel chair because he was laughing so hard. hackerbod scratched his head.

jamiedumont finally recovered from the ab-induced euphoria.

- Ah hackerbod, I hate to admit it but they got me good! Those cursed language zealots got one over on me!

[jamiedumont]

I...I don't know what to make of this!