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torginustoday at 12:30 PM1 replyview on HN

Imo the worst thing about starting out with C++ (which is much better with Rust), is the lack of credible package management/build system that allows you to just install packages.

This used to be even more true previously than today. Nowadays, there's stuff like vcpkg, and tons of resources, but I still wouldn't call it straightforward compared to something like nuget or cargo.

It tooke me more time to figure out CMake than entire other programming languages.


Replies

tialaramextoday at 1:16 PM

It does really help, in modern languages where they provide tools in the box and the ecosystem just accepts those as the default† tools, to have the default be that when you make a new project it just works, often by having it print "Hello, World!" or something else simple but definitive as proof we made a program.

† Default means just that, neither Rust's own compiler nor the Linux kernel need the cargo tooling, but these projects both have actual toolsmiths to maintain their build infrastructure and your toy program does not. There should be a default which Just Works at this small scale.