TITLE: A New Programming Language Can Inspire Us AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: October 06, 2014 4:02 PM DESC: ----- BODY: In A Fresh Look at Rust, Armin Ronacher tells us that some of what inspires him about Rust:
For me programming in Rust is pure joy. Yes I still don't agree with everything the language currently forces me to do but I can't say I have enjoyed programming that much in a long time. It gives me new ideas how to solve problems and I can't wait for the language to get stable. Rust is inspiring for many reasons. The biggest reason I like it is because it's practical. I tried Haskell, I tried Erlang and neither of those languages spoke "I am a practical language" to me. I know there are many programmers that adore them, but they are not for me. Even if I could love those languages, other programmers would never do and that takes a lot of enjoyment away.
I enjoy reading personal blog entries from people excited by a new language, or newly excited by a language they are visiting again after a while away. I've only read Rust code, not written it, but I know just how Ronacher feels. These two paragraphs touch on several truths about how languages excite us: Many programmers make a point of learning a new language periodically. When we do, we are often most struck by a language that teaches us new ways to think about problems and how to solve them. These are usually the languages that have the most teach us at the moment. As Kevin Kelly says, progress sometimes demands that we let go of problems. We occasionally have to seek new problems, in order to be excited by new ways to answer them. This all is very context-specific, other. How wonderful it is to live in a time with so many languages available to learn from. Let them all flourish, I say. -----