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Learning Rust to make my perfect Linux programs launcher (rofi is perfect, except it isn't written in Rust)
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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
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107   Original
DonutsRMeh lemmy.world DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-03-13
#2 · Quote Reply

Your brain is going to rust before you learn rust.

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ShutUpWesley piefed.zip ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip
Joined: 2026-04-19
#3 · Quote Reply

Rust is cool, but not the end-all-be-all solution some people have the impression it is.

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tal lemmy.today tal@lemmy.today
Joined: 2023-10-04
#4 · (edited) Quote Reply

Rust is cool, but not the end-all-be-all solution some people have the impression it is.

I could understand caring a lot about the language if I were writing or maintaining something, but not usually if I'm just using a software package, unless it has performance implications. Maybe for software that has privilege escalation risk you maybe want a language that might help mitigate some security issues, but launchers shouldn't fall into that camp.

But, hey, people have their own preferences and opinions. Maybe someone's super into Rust and wants to try to run as pure a Rust environment as possible or something.

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chrash0 lemmy.world chrash0@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-03-03
#5 · Quote Reply

Rust is cool, but not the end-all-be-all solution some people have the impression it is.

i mean, it’s a good fit for a utility like this. starts quick, runs fast, small memory footprint… all the benefits of C/C++ but with modern tooling and a sane type system.

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#6 · Quote Reply

Rust is cool, but not the end-all-be-all solution some people have the impression it is.

I know lol I'm just shitposting based on the C++ post from yesterday

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#7 · Quote Reply

Your brain is going to rust before you learn rust.

Perfect. I will not be satisfied until my entire body is rust

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Randelung lemmy.world Randelung@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-12-18
#8 · (edited) Quote Reply

Wow, I hate the thumbnails just from this screenshot.

Good luck, Rust is easy if you have a background in C/C++. Lifetime specifiers are a wrinkle, but also doable. I recommend you do Advent of Code tasks and ask an LLM for stylistic feedback.

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#9 · Quote Reply

Wow, I hate the thumbnails just from this screenshot. Good luck, Rust is easy if you have a background in C/C++. Lifetime specifiers are a wrinkle, but also doable. I recommend you do Advent of Code tasks and ask an LLM for stylistic feedback.

Sorry, I'm sure it's because you were excited to learn rust too, but the videos didn't play

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Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ piefed.zip Sxan@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-06-18
#10 · (edited) Quote Reply

I know lol I'm just shitposting based on the C++ post from yesterday

It was C

Edit: it wasn't C; it was C++.

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#11 · Quote Reply

It was C Edit: it wasn't C; it was C++.

My bad. This is what happens when your brain isn't memory safe

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mrspaz lemmy.world mrspaz@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-09
#12 · Quote Reply

Lookin' good. Just be sure to put "unsafe" before all your function definitions.

unsafe fn main()

That'll do ya.

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MaskedNybbles piefed.social MaskedNybbles@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-04-02
#13 · Quote Reply

It was C Edit: it wasn't C; it was C++.

It was C++.

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MaskedNybbles piefed.social MaskedNybbles@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-04-02
#14 · (edited) Quote Reply

I am unwilling to make light of another's desire to learn so that they might help themselves, even if some of the phrasing feels a little silly and market-y.

What does this post accomplish? Feels mean-spirited, really.

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#15 · Quote Reply

Wow, I hate the thumbnails just from this screenshot. Good luck, Rust is easy if you have a background in C/C++. Lifetime specifiers are a wrinkle, but also doable. I recommend you do Advent of Code tasks and ask an LLM for stylistic feedback.

Dropping the /s for a moment, I actually already learned Rust about 7 years ago for my CS courses. There was a 7 week writing course where we had to pick a programming topic, centered on language design. I chose to generally discuss Rust because of lifetimes and found that there are a lot of cool things, but the syntax can get extremely dense

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#16 · Quote Reply

I am unwilling to make light of another's desire to learn so that they might help themselves, even if some of the phrasing feels a little silly and market-y. What does this post accomplish? Feels mean-spirited, really.

I'm not making fun of that person. More power to them. I'm making fun of the rust community's desire to rewrite the fabric of the universe in Rust

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rockSlayer lemmy.blahaj.zone rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-02-24
#17 · Quote Reply

Lookin' good. Just be sure to put "unsafe" before all your function definitions. unsafe fn main() That'll do ya.

Excellent, thanks for the tip! I'm thinking of writing a linked list and creating reference pointers to the list so I can copy it and change the copy. Unsafe fixed all the problems, but my PC keeps crashing. I think it's some non-rust util smh

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MaskedNybbles piefed.social MaskedNybbles@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-04-02
#18 · (edited) Quote Reply

I'm not making fun of that person. More power to them. I'm making fun of the rust community's desire to rewrite the fabric of the universe in Rust

Alright. It just seems to me that anti-intellectualism is everywhere and that is what I first jumped to. I apologize for the accusation. It was knee-jerk. Carry on with your light-hearted ribbing, then.

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Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ piefed.zip Sxan@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-06-18
#19 · Quote Reply

My bad. This is what happens when your brain isn't memory safe

Naw, it was my mistake. I misremembered it -- it was C++.

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Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ piefed.zip Sxan@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-06-18
#20 · Quote Reply

It was C++.

Huh. You're right.

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Ephera lemmy.ml Ephera@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2020-05-31
#21 · Quote Reply

I could understand caring a lot about the language if I were writing or maintaining something, but not usually if I'm just using a software package, unless it has performance implications. Maybe for software that has privilege escalation risk you maybe want a language that might help mitigate some security issues, but launchers shouldn't fall into that camp. But, hey, people have their own pref...

I mean, just to offer you the counter perspective, IMHO programs written in X tend to have problem Y:

  • Python: Terrible error messages, buggy, sluggish, slow, but good documentation
  • Java: Gurgles RAM like there's no tomorrow (but tends to do something useful with it), sluggish
  • Node.js: Just gurgles RAM for the fun of it, buggy, over-engineered functionality, confusing documentation
  • Rust: Over-engineered functionality
  • Go: Bad error messages, quirky detail behavior
  • Haskell: Practically 0 bugs, but if you do run into a bug, good luck. Thin documentation.
  • C/C++: Basically no bells or whistles, and no compiled build available. Also stupidly difficult compile on anything, except the singular dev's PC.

Obviously, these are caricatures, i.e. I'm overdrawing the details and omitting nuance. And these are also influenced by the kind of people that are drawn to these languages. And these are influenced by what I know about the languages, I didn't conduct a double-blind study.

But yeah, there's a reason why Python ended up first on that list. I don't have that hard of an opinion about the others, but genuinely, when I know a non-trivial program is written in Python, I will think twice whether I want to use it. Because it always seems to cost me a non-trivial amount of nerves in the end.

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Err(()).unwrap() Moderator rtxn@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-24
#22 · Quote Reply

Excellent, thanks for the tip! I'm thinking of writing a linked list and creating reference pointers to the list so I can copy it and change the copy. Unsafe fixed all the problems, but my PC keeps crashing. I think it's some non-rust util smh

It's that damn borrow checker again! Try the rust-- compiler, it disables that antifeature.

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Ephera lemmy.ml Ephera@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2020-05-31
#23 · Quote Reply

I'm not making fun of that person. More power to them. I'm making fun of the rust community's desire to rewrite the fabric of the universe in Rust

As a Rust dev, I approve of this.

(Especially the rewriting. Spacetime has way too many quirks and should be deprecated.)

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some_guy lemmy.sdf.org some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
Joined: 2023-06-26
#24 · Quote Reply

That's a pretty great dunk. On multiple levels.

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Shadow Glider piefed.blahaj.zone Shadow_Glider@piefed.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-06-09
#25 · Quote Reply

I'm not making fun of that person. More power to them. I'm making fun of the rust community's desire to rewrite the fabric of the universe in Rust

People rewriting common software in Rust is a good thing, regardless how good the original and its code was, it's a fun exercise in coding if nothing else, and if it ends up worse than the original, that's fine! That's how you practice and learn, and it should be encouraged.

Fuck corporations using Rust rewrites to replace GPL-licenced software with Expat-licenced ones.

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felsiq piefed.zip felsiq@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-07-02
#26 · Quote Reply

semi-relevant to the joke, but for anyone who actually does want a rust based launcher there’s anyrun which works great on my systems

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GottaHaveFaith fedia.io GottaHaveFaith@fedia.io
Joined: 2024-07-08
#27 · Quote Reply

I'm not making fun of that person. More power to them. I'm making fun of the rust community's desire to rewrite the fabric of the universe in Rust

I have to admit that reading the other post I did think "why is he learning C instead of rust", so...

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Fushuan [he/him] lemmy.blahaj.zone fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2025-06-08
#28 · Quote Reply

I mean, just to offer you the counter perspective, IMHO programs written in X tend to have problem Y: Python: Terrible error messages, buggy, sluggish, slow, but good documentation Java: Gurgles RAM like there's no tomorrow (but tends to do something useful with it), sluggish Node.js: Just gurgles RAM for the fun of it, buggy, over-engineered functionality, confusing documentation Rust: Over-en...

I know you said those are caricatures, but with C or C++, programs usually do have a make or cmake script to be built in 1-3 commands explained in the repo.

I'd have mentioned that their more typical execution error message is "segfault". Where? Fuck you, that's where.

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LegoBrickOnFire lemmy.world LegoBrickOnFire@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-08-07
#29 · Quote Reply

It's that damn borrow checker again! Try the rust-- compiler, it disables that antifeature.

I am scared...
But is rust without borrow checker actually a goodenough language ?

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Err(()).unwrap() Moderator rtxn@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-24
#30 · (edited) Quote Reply

I am scared... But is rust without borrow checker actually a goodenough language ?

The borrow checker is a feature in the compiler. It only ensures that the source code doesn't violate its rules at compile time, and if it does, stops the compilation and shows an error message. If the borrow checker is disabled, the code will be compiled even if borrowing rules are violated (as long as the source code is otherwise valid).

In short: removing the borrow checker turns Rust into C.

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