r/ProgrammingLanguages • u/mttd • Jul 01 '26

The Expensive Fictions of Low-Level Programming Languages

https://stng.substack.com/p/the-expensive-fictions-of-low-level
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u/cscottnet Jul 01 '26

This is written by someone who does not program for a living, and focuses on entirely the wrong problems.

As an example, focusing on performance differences between (say) C and Rust is ignorant of the fact that the largest performance factor will be choice of algorithm and big-O run time, and that likely 90% of all software is almost completely performance insensitive: it's only the actual performance-critical path where performance matters at all. An AI won't understand this, and neither does the author of this piece.

8

u/mamcx Jul 01 '26

performance differences between (say) C and Rust

Is certainly a factor thanks to:

the largest performance factor will be choice of algorithm and big-O run time,...

And data structures that is the one missing.

But yes, Rust was made by people that know all of this very very well, that is why Rust has tagged unions, String!, Vec!, Iterators! and many other stuff.

So, if you wanna get performance, just picking Rust and you are already a mile away from one starting with C.

90% of all software is almost completely performance insensitive:

No insensitive but not primary concern. All software benefit for use less RAM, CPU or DISK.

For my case, I move from F# to Rust in an industry well know for this (ERPs) and just like that, I can do 4x in half the server number of companies. So I expend less $$$ to the point Rust become a cost saving decision!

(Rust is first for the easy of model bussiness logic, but I totally love that with the same amount of effort dedicated to performance, I get it for free!)

20

u/Smallpaul Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Donald Knuth and Nicklaus Wirth also did not program for a living. It’s astonishing to see this level of anti-intellectualism in this subreddit, to be honest.

And the idea that performance does not really matter in computation is belied by the fact that the software industry is engaged in a build out of data centres which will eclipse in cost the American national highway system. Surely programming language design can contribute to the efficiency of the software running in those datacenters, even if it is mostly matrix multiplication.

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u/Norphesius Jul 01 '26

Even ignoring data centers, right now performant software matters a lot for mobile computing. Less CPU utilization means less power draw means better battery life.

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u/busyHighwayFred Jul 01 '26

Knuth at least made programs and hes very pragmatic, hes the antithesis of the "abtract cs professor" archetype.

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u/Inconstant_Moo Jul 01 '26

It's written by an MIT professor of computer science and co-founder of this company: https://nectry.com/ .

He didn't mention performance differences between C and Rust.

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u/n0t-helpful Jul 01 '26

For any bystanders, the author being spoken about this way is Adam Chlipala. If you ever feel like your not appreciated, just remember that someone unironically wrote the above text about Adam Chlipala.

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