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1087 points smartmic | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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PaulHoule ◴[] No.44303560[source]
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Thinking you are too smart leads to all sorts of trouble, like using C++ and being proud of it.

If you think your intelligence is a limited resource however you'll conserve it and not waste it on tools, process and the wrong sort of design.

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guywithahat ◴[] No.44304040[source]
It would be really embarrassing to use one of the most popular, time-tested languages.

Even if we decided to use Zig for everything, hiring for less popular languages like Zig, lua, or Rust is significantly harder. There are no developers with 20 years experience in Zig

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shadowgovt ◴[] No.44304290[source]
Being at a firm where the decision to use C++ was made, the thought process went something like this:

"We're going to need to fit parts of this into very constrained architectures."

"Right, so we need a language that compiles directly to machine code with no runtime interpretation."

"Which one should we use?"

"What about Rust?"

"I know zero Rust developers."

"What about C++?"

"I know twenty C++ developers and am confident we can hire three of them tomorrow."

The calculus at the corporate level really isn't more complicated than that. And the thing about twenty C++ developers is that they're very good at using the tools to stamp the undefined behavior out of the system because they've been doing it their entire careers.

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WD-42 ◴[] No.44305200[source]
And none of those 20 C++ developers can learn rust? What’s wrong with them?
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1. shadowgovt ◴[] No.44306032[source]
Flip the question around: what is the benefit when they already know C++? Most of the safety promises one could make with Rust they can already give through proper application of sanitizers and tooling. At least they believe they can, and management believes them. Grug not ask too many questions when the working prototype is already sitting on Grug's desk because someone hacked it together last night instead of spending that time learning a new language.

I suspect that in a generation or so Rust will probably be where C++ is now: the language business uses because they can quickly find 20 developers who have a career in it.