I recently started learning rust, and I was ready for one hell of a fight. I heard all those horror Storys about the compiler complaining about every single detail and that developing rust means having a constant fight with the compiler about seemingly irrelevant things. However, so far I have to tell, that while its somewhat true, that the compiler is somewhat picky, it is incredibly helpful. Never before have I seen such good and helpful compiler messages. It not only says what you did wrong, but also gives direct help on what to do to fix your code. I also really like, that it gives you direct references to the rust book in the compiler messages.
Prior to starting my journey with rust I did quite a lot of python, some C and some bash and their interpreter/compiler messages are nothing when comparing them with rust. Especially the bash error messages are awful if you do not know what they mean and how to fix them.
Definitely! The only other language where I felt the compiler actually helped me was Haskell. C and C++ just go like “something is fucked, you figure it out”.
I think the learning curve exists but it has been vastly overestimated by the rumours. I have many years of experience with Rust now, just ask if you are unsure of anything. Feel free to tag me in any post or PM me, then I’ll definitely see it.
It’s the only compiler I’ve ever seen alert you if you’re using a Greek question mark ; instead of an actual semicolon ;
Yeah I think the reputation was probably deserved early in Rust’s life, but as time has gone on it has gotten a lot easier to write, especially with the non-lexical lifetimes update 3 years ago.
