Leaky Interoperability

Posted Sep 22, 2025 23:19 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
In reply to: Leaky Interoperability by hmanning77
Parent article: Comparing Rust to Carbon

> It's fine, in theory, to say that we should just enforce better standards. In practice people have lots to do and little time available. Perhaps Carbon will find ways to discourage temptation to write "just a little C++ to make this work"?

Yes, it's all about enforcement. One of the "easiest" ways is to tie bonuses to the "little C++" percentage. You can also block releases until that percentage falls under some target thresholds - exactly like any other quality metric. You can also inflict more mandatory review, test coverage, process overhead and what not on that percentage - making life with the "little C++" miserable.

There are plenty of ways - use your imagination. But they all require a strong, top-down push from management. That push exists in some technical enough companies. That safety push could be enough to make Carbon successful - exactly like it's been making Rust successful.

Who employs the speaker BTW? :-)