alt Hacker NewsThis implies that Rust build times haven't been a topic of discussion for the last 10 years. They don't have long build times just for funsies, Rust is completely different from Lisp.
Replies
pjmlp • today at 9:08 PM
Haskell, Standard ML and OCaml have the tools for faster development workflows, or going for lunch while producing an optimised build.
It is a matter of priorities.
faresahmed • today at 7:27 PM
I beg to differ. It's not that Rust is completely different from Lisp. PL writers get so caught up with their 'killer feature' which in the case of Rust is the borrow checker, that they completely abandon the other 50% which is the environment.
If we stopped treating the compiler as a one-shot program, we could theoretically shorten this edit-build-test loop by 99%.
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But there's not really a great reason for the long build times. There are plenty of languages that compile very fast. The Rust borrowchecker isn't the source of the bulk of the slowness. It seems to be a combination of language design (e.g. they didn't design it for fast compile times from the start), and implementation decisions. It does seem like there's room for a Rust-like language with Go-like tooling, standard lib, and a focus on development speed.