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Comment by linguafranca | Hacker News Reader

I'm hearing an awful lot about Rust on HN, even though afaict it still does't have a basic http package yet, limiting the main types of apps I would build with it. Maybe I'm in the minority, but perhaps we can slow down on Rust news until it's a little closer to usable?

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I understand there are a lot of people on HN with "web goggles" and a severe case of "all development is web development" myopia, but seriously this is just over the top. I'm a "C++ guy" (that is, I like writing programs using C++ and probably always will, even if I use others from time to time), but I would never object to a language like Rust on the basis that it lacks an http package. HTTP is a high level communication protocol. It isn't the only such, certainly not the most efficient, and definitely not even the best. To bash on a language for lack of "native" support for http is just a bit ridiculous.

While I'm certainly not going to say Rust is ready for use in production or anything like that, I'll have to dispute your points here:

(1) It has at least three HTTP packages that I'm aware of (not finished ones, admittedly).

(2) While perhaps for you lacking an HTTP package is a dealbreaker, many of the areas Rust is targetting (such as embedded) don't require it at all.

(3) Why should people stop talking about a language because it hasn't been released yet, anyway? I'm not sure I follow the logic here.

I like reading this stuff. Sure, I may not use Rust for any real application yet, but it's been teaching me a whole lot on different paradigms than I am used to. I think these articles are great because it pushes boundaries in understanding. And this is a science we are talking about - experimentation is a lot of fun!

Maybe there's just enough people interested in types of software that don't involve making HTTP requests. Programs that make REST requests is only one tributary within the taxonomy of software.

> slow down on Rust news until it's a little closer to usable?

"Usable" is an ironic way to spell "hackable".

You mentioned the words "news" and "use". Does the H in HN still stand for something? Maybe HN stands for "HTTP News"?

One way a new FOSS platform can become more usable is by attracting new contributors. If a new platform is talked about, it will attract new contributors. Ergo by being talked about, a new platform becomes more usable.

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