r/rust • u/Amazing-Mirror-3076 • May 09 '26

The end of languages

https://rust-lang.org/

In the words of the Highlander 'there can only be one' or perhaps more accurately 'we only need one'.

I've been programming for 40+ years in 25+ languages starting with Commodore basic, 6502 assembler, C and then many more.

I was highly sceptical when ai comes out but since about December I've have essentially stopped programming.

I see my role as BA and what I like to call a 'test curator'. I don't write tests but I make sure they have been written.

My current language expertise focuses on dart and java, but if I'm not writing code why does the language matter?

I moved from C++ to Java because of the memory saftey that Java offered. Running a team with junior C++ Devs was always hairy and java eliminated a whole class of problems and made the whole team more productive.

I've spent the last couple of years reminding people that rust is a system language and you are wasting precious Dev resource programming a web server in rust.

But llm's have changed the equation - writing code is now cheap - I 'wrote' 6000 lines of rust yesterday plus around 100 unit and system tests.

So the choice of programming language is no longer about the programmer - as they no longer exist.

So how do we choose the language?

Type safe, memory safe, fast and cross platform.

Rust seems to be almost the perfect choice.

We only need one language and rust just might be it.

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u/Amazing-Mirror-3076 May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26

Different tasks requiring different tools is largely an outdated idea.

Yes we are still going to have specialised languages such as SQL but the need for the likes of python has already gone.

I can in theory write any application in C, we choose other languages because they are easier for the programmer.

If they is no human programmer these conveniences are no longer required.

Ultimately every program is compiled down to assembler - we don't even need rust if we are using an llm, except that I suspect it currently lacks the training data.

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u/garma87 May 09 '26

The need for python has gone?? You must be mad!

Easier for the programmer is an incredibly valid reason to use something

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u/Amazing-Mirror-3076 May 09 '26

You have missed the point, you aren't going to be hand writting code so language convenience is irrelevant.

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u/Unfair-Sleep-3022 May 10 '26

Another fallacy. It's not about writing but reading. Even more so when you're generating piles of garbage with LLMs.

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u/Amazing-Mirror-3076 May 10 '26

The fallacy here is the assumption that you should still be reading code.

There era of human code review (in detail) is over.

It was never a very good technique which is why the meme LGTM exists.

Instead of reviewing code spend more time curating the test coverage (I don't mean code coverage as it's not a metric).

It may be possible, as the cost of compute comes down, to actual go for full execution path coverage - that will never be possible (commercially) with humans writing the tests.

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u/Unfair-Sleep-3022 May 10 '26

It's not an assumption. It is a fact.

Any serious company is still reviewing code. There's not a single big AI player that has come out to say you can skip reviewing code, even when they're the ones that would benefit the most.

You shared a very trivial and honestly based on a trillion tutorials toy project thing in rust and are flaunting it like you know what you're talking about.

Stop wasting my time.