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Embedded Rust in Production?

(blog.lohr.dev)
205 points michidk | 2 comments | 14 Oct 24 06:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.408s | source
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baq ◴[14 Oct 24 07:45 UTC] No.41835199[source]▶
As expected, the people problem is the biggest factor. Turns out getting C folks to learn Rust is a difficult proposition (hello, lkml) but the other way around it isn't too much of a problem.

I wonder how much of it is low-level experienced developers only ever using C fail to see that C is not the universally best tool (or, 'if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail' question).

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dunefox ◴[14 Oct 24 07:57 UTC] No.41835262[source]▶
> I wonder how much of it is low-level experienced developers only ever using C fail to see that C is not the universally best tool

I'd say that's it. From my own experience with software developers, convincing some of them to learn something new is practically impossible.

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marcyb5st ◴[14 Oct 24 08:13 UTC] No.41835349[source]▶
I generally speaking agree, but I would be more specific:

If the person in question has a true passion for the craft, you can regardless of the age/seniority of the developer (at least in my experience). In fact, learning something like a new programing language is a big undertaking and if your work doesn't offer incentives/rewards the will has to come from the person him/herself and so that's why the passion bit I mentioned above.

In my experience I also notice that more senior/older devs are more reluctant to learn new things, but I am unsure if that's due having their passion destroyed by many years of bullshit companies politics, pointless meetings/trainings, and adherence to the latest flavor of agile development every quarter or simply an age thing (I'm not there yet and so I can't tell first hand).

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Lanolderen ◴[14 Oct 24 08:37 UTC] No.41835492[source]▶
Would this not also be partially connected to not wanting to throw away your 15 years experience with C for 1 year experience in Rust assuming the company actually ditches C? (or any other direct replacement language/tool scenario)

Sounds like a way to replace yourself by 2 low pay students who also have 1 year of Rust experience.

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1. sgu999 ◴[14 Oct 24 10:07 UTC] No.41836004[source]▶
That's really just being a Luddite, I understand the mindset but that's a very poor strategy if one cares about job security. A (good!) senior developer has a ton of value outside of the pure mastery of a language specs, not to mention that learning a language for 1 year with 15 years of prior knowledge really doesn't lead to the same level as a student who does the same.
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2. netdevnet ◴[14 Oct 24 12:54 UTC] No.41837076[source]▶
That kind of value only matters as long as you can find an ecosystem of companies that can be convinced to pay you what you think that value is worth. Many companies can't be convinced to do so and the companies that can are overflown by candidates smarter than you that have regular contributions in top rated github repos if they haven't made super popular frameworks and libraries