Why is the Rust compiler so slow?

As a former C++ developer, claims that rust compilation is slow leave me scratching my head.

Which is one of the reasons why Rust is considered to be targeting C++'s developers. C++ devs already have the Stockholm syndrome needed to tolerate the tooling.

Rust's compilation is slow, but the tooling is just about the best that any programming language has.

How good is the debugger? "edit and continue"? Hot reload? Full IDE?

I don't know enough Rust, but I find these aspects are seriously lacking in C++ on Linux, and it is one of the few things I think Windows has it better for developers. Is Rust better?

> debugger

I've only ever really used a debugger on embedded, we used gdb there. I know VS: Code has a debugger that works, I'm sure other IDEs do too.

> edit and continue

Hard to do in a pre-compiled language with no runtime, if you're asking about what I think you're asking about.

> Hot reload

Other folks gave you good links, but this stuff is pretty new, so I wouldn't claim that this is great and often good and such.

> Full IDE

I'm not aware of Rust-specific IDEs, but many IDEs have good support for Rust. VS: Code is the most popular amongst users according to the annual survey. The Rust Project distributes an official LSP server, so you can use that with any editor that supports it.

So the answer is very clear "no" on all accounts, just like for other languages built by people who don't understand the value of good tooling.

I haven't used Rust much, but the tooling felt very solid. There's a default package manager that works well, unlike many other languages including C++ and somehow Python. Debugging is fine. Idk why you expected edit-and-continue, it's not like you get that in C++ either.

You have "edit and continue" in Visual Studio (the real IDE, not VS Code).

And I mentioned it as a downside of C++ on Linux, and I would expect a language that has "the best" tooling to have that.

C++ tooling isn't that great, but it has one thing going for it: it is popular in the video game industry, and the video industry has some of the best tools.

And sure enough, if by tooling you mean "package management", I'd say everything is better than C++, and on the other side, it seems that cargo is pretty good. I don't know how they tackle the "left-pad" problem that plagues npm though. By that I mean supply-chain attacks.