Sometimes I think about how many weeks I’ve wasted debugging my local python environment, managing venvs and various build/package management/testing tools, manually editing my shell’s rc file to approximate a sane dev flow, fixing broken dependencies, re-fixing them whenever I pull changes from one of a dozen repos, etc. I can’t help wonder if Rust would be a net productivity gain solely based on that stuff.
And then, less dramatically but still significant, there’s the runtime errors and all the hand-written JSON (de-)serialization code. It adds up.
I've recently worked on rewriting small-but-not-trivial dynamically typed programs in Rust, and also work on tooling at my company (also written in a dynamically typed language); the sore points you've mentioned are very real and significant.
However, the productivity gains mentioned are an effect of any statically typed language, not just of of Rust, and the problem is that Rust's cognitive overhead offsets them. I definitely would not bring Rust to the table at my company because of that; I've recently had an experience with an engineer who thought it was fun to use, but couldn't write anything with it; I'm sure that with a simpler language, they could have.
I think there are new languages that are a valid middle ground (between Golang and Rust), although they don't have yet enough traction and/or maturity (most importantly, in terms of libraries available) - in other words, they's still hobby languages as of now. I have the suspicion that if a new language will become an established one, it will still take "not few" years, not less than 5/10, unfortunately. I like to use Lambda languages support as an indicator :)
Totally agree. I think Rust advocates can be quite myopic, and tend to frame Rust's advantages relative to C++ or Python/JS in particular. But there are a great many languages which are more productive than Rust, and don't have some of the specific relative drawbacks that C++ or Python do.
I really enjoy programming in Rust, but it's undeniable it makes tradeoffs in terms of productivity for the unique value proposition it presents. The idea that Rust should be used to implement every CRUD webservice, or that Rust -> wasm should be used to implement every web app just seems like irrational exuberance to me.
I'm writing web or web-adjacent code in Python, TypeScript and Rust.
Recently, I ported one of my Python projects to Rust using PyO3 for exactly the reasons you mention. I haven't battle-tested this Rust code yet, so I can't tell you whether this was a good time investment. What I can tell you, though, is that it was much easier than I thought.
And then, less dramatically but still significant, there’s the runtime errors and all the hand-written JSON (de-)serialization code. It adds up.