alt Hacker NewsThe documentation is probably the best resource to start with the concept and how it works / what the goals are: https://doc.rust-lang.org/edition-guide/editions/index.html
For example, https://doc.rust-lang.org/edition-guide/rust-2021/warnings-p... - code that produced a lint warning in the 2018 edition produces a compiler error in the 2021 edition. That would be something that can't be done in a backwards compatible way without editions
Another example would be changes to the import syntax https://doc.rust-lang.org/edition-guide/rust-2018/path-chang... - the compiler will forever support the 2015 behavior in crates that use the 2015 edition, but crates using newer editions can use the newer behavior
As stated before, the documentation in both languages was already consulted. It did not clear up how Rust is any different than Go in this regard. Consider a simple example from the Go documentation: Support for numeric underscores, which was not a part of the original language and later included in a 'new edition' of Go.
Using the 1.13 or later version of the gc compiler, if your go.mod specifies anything after 1.12 the above compiles fine. But if go.mod asserts go 1.12 or earlier, you will get a compiler error from the above code as the compiler reverts to 1.12 or earlier behaviour based on the version directive. That sounds exactly like what you described! And, like I said before, Rust's documentation too echoes to my read that editions accomplish basically the same thing and exist for the same reason Go version directives exist.But the earlier commenter indicated that they are very different. So, unfortunately, you have again failed to break the cycle. We need something dumbed down for us regular people, not something directed at those who walk, talk, and sleep Rust.