undefined | Better HN

0 pointsMacha7y ago0 comments

So this year I learned:

Rust: While I'd dabbled in C++ before, it was mostly just a pain, while I found Rust to be a nicer way to work on lower level projects. Ported a game side project I've been working on from Python + Kivy to Rust + Piston, and came out with a nice performance boost.

Mypy + SQLAlchemy: So while I have moved some projects from Python to Rust, others are still Python based and so I took the time to actually learn two of the libraries I've used at a surface level.

SQL: I mean, technically I've been using it for 10 years, but took the time to actually expand my knowledge from basic CRUD + table definitions. The one problem: Basically none of the nice stuff I learned works on the MySQL 5.7 we use in work :(

Docker: Another one of those things I'd been using but not really understanding, this is the most recent one where in the last month I've been working on a dev image to simplify running a few of our services in work, plus also redid my personal VPS to a dockerised setup for my various side projects so now it's way more reproducible than four years of ssh+vim methods of installation/configuration.

0 comments

5 comments · 1 top-level

sidcool7y ago· 4 in thread

Is C/C++ knowledge important for learning Rust?

steveklabnik7y ago

Opinions are split. Many people have learned it without any previous C or C++ knowledge. Some argue that you can't truly appreciate Rust until you've written them. It can be helpful, but it can also be harmful.

1 more reply

pornel7y ago

It's not. Rust exposes similar lower-level issues that C/C++ also deal with, like memory allocation on stack vs heap, but you'll pick them up while learning Rust one way or another.

In some ways C/C++ is a hindrance when learning Rust, because although Rust has many features superficially similar to C/C++'s features, the details are different and programming patterns are different, so you'd need to un-learn some C/C++ habits.

MachaOP7y ago

Not really. It'd help speed up the process for some areas, but it's not that significant as rust has other influences and its own unique areas.

6keZbCECT2uB7y ago

I've found that the Rust code that I've written is stylistically more similar to Haskell. However, while references in Rust are a distinct concept from references in C++, they both have a distinction between a pointer to an object and the value of an object.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse