Slashdot Mirror
Rust Creator Graydon Hoare Says Current Software Development Practices Terrify Him (twitter.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
On Monday Graydon Hoare, the original creator of the Rust programming language, posted some memories on Twitter. "25 years ago I got a job at a computer bookstore. We were allowed to borrow and read the books; so I read through all the language books, especially those with animals on the covers. 10 years ago I had a little language of my own printing hello world." And Monday he was posting a picture of O'Reilly Media's first edition of their new 622-page book Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development. Then he elaborated to his followers about what happened in between.
"I made a prototype, then my employer threw millions of dollars at it and hired dozens of researchers and programmers (and tireless interns, hi!) and a giant community of thousands of volunteers showed up and _then_ the book arrived. (After Jim and Jason wrote it and like a dozen people reviewed it and a dozen others edited it and an army of managers coordinated it and PLEASE DESIST IN THINKING THINGS ARE MADE BY SINGLE PEOPLE IT IS A VERY UNHEALTHY MYTH)." He writes that the nostaglic series of tweets was inspired because "I was just like a little tickled at the circle-of-life feeling of it all, reminiscing about sitting in a bookstore wondering if I'd ever get to work on cool stuff like this."
One Twitter user then asked him if Rust was about dragging C++ hackers halfway to ML, to which Hoare replied "Not dragging, more like throwing C/C++ folks (including myself) a life raft wrt. safety... Basically I've an anxious, pessimist personality; most systems I try to build are a reflection of how terrifying software-as-it-is-made feels to me. I'm seeking peace and security amid a nightmare of chaos. I want to help programmers sleep well, worry less."
"I made a prototype, then my employer threw millions of dollars at it and hired dozens of researchers and programmers (and tireless interns, hi!) and a giant community of thousands of volunteers showed up and _then_ the book arrived. (After Jim and Jason wrote it and like a dozen people reviewed it and a dozen others edited it and an army of managers coordinated it and PLEASE DESIST IN THINKING THINGS ARE MADE BY SINGLE PEOPLE IT IS A VERY UNHEALTHY MYTH)." He writes that the nostaglic series of tweets was inspired because "I was just like a little tickled at the circle-of-life feeling of it all, reminiscing about sitting in a bookstore wondering if I'd ever get to work on cool stuff like this."
One Twitter user then asked him if Rust was about dragging C++ hackers halfway to ML, to which Hoare replied "Not dragging, more like throwing C/C++ folks (including myself) a life raft wrt. safety... Basically I've an anxious, pessimist personality; most systems I try to build are a reflection of how terrifying software-as-it-is-made feels to me. I'm seeking peace and security amid a nightmare of chaos. I want to help programmers sleep well, worry less."
DeWalt doesn't sell power tools that go out of their way to make sure you don't cut off your fingers.
Unfortunately, they do. That's why when I get a new power tool, I have to make modifications to pare it down to an elegant C-style device:
I remove the blade guard. I cut off the grounding prong and file down the ears on the neutral conductor. I permanently glue down the little trigger interlock button. I put a lock washer on the blade arbor so that it can't ever slip and reduce my torque. None of these annoying things even matter so long as I never make a mistake.
He is terrified of other language because, being a Social Justice Warrior, his group finds the terms "master" and "slave" to be "problematic."
No, I'm not kidding, though I wish I were.
When a language is gleefully throwing away well understood, well used terms because of someone's misguided feelings, then quite frankly I wonder what other decisions - truly important ones - have been impacted by the same toxic SJW attitude.
Correcting others on ML, but misusing the phrase "du jour" and instead claiming Rust is a language by force of law. Oh, the irony police called, their phone exploded.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
You can't have that. People with a varied skillset look weak in any particular area to recruiters.
As a technical lead, this phenomenon has been a source of great frustration in getting candidates. I'm only allowed to even know about a prospective candidate after 2 or three layers of non-technical folks have "helped" me by making an assessment of the candidate's technical chops. Similarly they "help" in the requirements by padding things out so that a candidate will have everything needed to "hit the ground running", because of course there would be no ramp up needed if they *just* have the right resume...
No recognition that there is always going to be a ramp up period, that you want flexibility more so than existing directly relevant experience.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
This seems to be one of those unfortunate things (for both applicants and existing technical staff) that comes from bureaucracy as an organisation grows. As soon as you're big enough to have HR and Legal running the show in terms of recruitment, they're putting their own filters in between potentially good candidates and potentially interested technical teams within the business. That does avoid a lot of the time-wasters, but it also gets in the way of an efficient hiring process for qualified applicants.
I don't play in that playground any more, but my view when I did was that HR should restrict its screening to formalities (for example, can this person legally work here?) and objective facts about the candidate. And even then, since the objective facts most likely to be interesting are about the candidate's technical skills and experience, you still need someone who doesn't confuse Java with JavaScript and who realises that a candidate with 10 years' experience using SQL Server and MySQL can probably handle the Postgres skills you're asking for.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Don't leave us hanging; did you get the job?
To keep a long story short
Wow - I'd hate to see your long ones!.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.