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by anonymous9082132 hours ago |
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upvoteby thomashabets22 hours ago|
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Cobol powers the world's money and international travel. Not sure how that matters.

> Think about what Rust software people actually use

More and more Chrome, Google, Android, Cloudflare, Prime Video, and phone basebands, parts of Linux kernel, and many other things.

Normal users literally use those all day every day.

Are they 100% Rust? Of course not (well, I don't actually know if some phone basebands are, by now. Naturally very closed source). But they're not 100% another-language either.

If C disappeared from the world, the world would stop, yes. Same with Cobol. Same with Java. Same with C++. Same with assembly.

If I were to guess (completely without basis for my guess) about the number of lines of code that normal users exercise in a normal day (counting each line just once), my bet would be on Java or JS.

Would the Java be able to run without the C code? No. But normal users would not be able to do anything if only C was left. And all banks would be gone.

And in any case C would not be able to do anything without transistors.

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upvoteby dwattttt2 hours ago|
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Rust is in use in more places than you may expect. Does the hypothetical grandma use Windows' kernel? Android? Firefox? Chrome?
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upvoteby anonymous9082132 hours ago|
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1% of code in some obscure module that's barely used being written in Rust does not give one claim to those things being written in Rust. Even Firefox is only 10% Rust despite the language being designed by Mozilla, and they abandoned their project to write a new browser engine in Rust.
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upvoteby aero_code2 hours ago|
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It's not "some obscure module" that is written in Rust. Just some examples I know of:

- Chrome currently uses https://github.com/googlefonts/fontations to implement its font handling, and text is the main thing on most web pages.

- Windows' DirectWriteCore for font handling is also now written in Rust.

- Firefox's whole CSS engine and GPU 2D rendering engine are written in Rust.

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upvoteby thomashabets22 hours ago|
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What is your point?

I pointed to a jetbrains study, and then there's a stackoverflow survey[1] showing C neck and neck with PHP at 11th place among professional developers.

We all know there's lots of important C code out there. I don't see anyone going "RIIR!!!" in this thread.

But obviously yes, the 11th place language will have MANY programmers working on it. Not as many as JS by far. But many. In that survey Go is just after PHP. There are also many many Go programmers.

We are not yet at risk of running out of C programmers, like the Cobol situation. Nor do I want us to.[2]

But what point are you trying to make by so strongly defending C and the comment "grownups with important jobs write C"?

[1] https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#most-popular... [2] relevant comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187384

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upvoteby anonymous9082132 hours ago|
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The point I am trying to make is that C is a production language and Rust is not a production language, so the original comment is pretty much correct if you take adults with jobs to mean writing software used in production. People use JS, your JS engine is written in C++, running in a browser written in C++, running on an OS written in C/++. Whatever higher-level language you use, it's powered by C/++. Your game engines are written in C/++. Your fucking car is written in C. It's not even an argument about what is better or what people should use or anything like that. It's just acknowledging reality. You're talking about how "writing new C in 2026 is misconduct" like it's a relic of a bygone era when in actuality the world around you is a world written entirely in C with, rounded to a whole percent, literally 0% of the software anyone uses being written in Rust.
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upvoteby dwattttt7 minutes ago|
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> Rust is not a production language

Your argument was that the only Rust projects there are are little developer tools, so Rust isn't a production language. When pointed out there are large projects that every day users rely on that use Rust, and not just in corners of the codebase, code that's exercised by approximately all users, you insist it's still not production?

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upvoteby contact987952 minutes ago|
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> Rust is not a production language because so much legacy code

You must not exist, because, rounded to a whole percent, literally 0% of the lives of people in the world are directly affected by you personally

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upvoteby scottyah1 hours ago|
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I doubt it, Rust developers compete only with crossfit and vegans in the race to be noticed.
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upvoteby dwattttt9 minutes ago|
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You.. doubt that people use Firefox, Chrome, Windows, or Android? That it must be "attention" that's the reason those projects have Rust in them now?
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