Hacker News Reader

Comment by _dain_ | Hacker News Reader

>The very first systems programming language I ever learned was Rust. This is uncommon compared to many other programmers; you're more likely to find someone who learned C or C++ first before coming to Rust.

It's becoming increasingly common. Rust is my first systems programming language too. I tried to learn C a few years ago but I found it too austere and prickly, which put me off.

View on HN

I was going to write that I found this odd. The kid that cuts my grass is going for a degree in CS and told me just yesterday that, in his second year, Java is the language he uses with a little Python. That C was such a struggle and he won't touch it.

For someone getting a CS degree, that just seems so, so odd. Along with that, he's been studying edge detection in images. In his second year. Not to run off topic but, again, I find that so, so odd.

When I was in college at a large Midwest university in 2002 intro cs classes were taught in C. Business majors were required to take cs 101 taught in C. We had a project that required implementing linked lists, oh how the business majors suffered! We all did actually but at least the cs majors could use the knowledge!

Stuff like this was often done to enforce a minimum IQ.

Very reasonable imo as universitys educated people that get positions with responsibilitys.

That's interesting - to me C is delightfully austere. Most other languages, even much younger languages like Rust, spiral in complexity as they mature. But C hasn't grown much more complex since C99. How many other (mainstream) languages can say that?

Probably because C and C++ are mostly used in system and desktop development.

Rust is taking steps or has been taking steps in this direction too.

It's not surprising that a lot of experienced systems and desktop development engineers looking to getting their hands on the newest tool already have experience or at least familiarity with C and C++.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com