"fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler" [LWN.net]

"fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler"

Posted Feb 13, 2021 20:03 UTC (Sat) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75)
In reply to: "fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler" by sthibaul
Parent article: Python cryptography, Rust, and Gentoo

Yes, but making ports difficult can also kill in the egg possibly interesting new projects.

The problem in this case is not so much the difficulty of making the port but the lack of resources to do the porting. Many of the platforms in question have been out of production for a decade or more and were in serious decline long before that. The only people supporting them are a handful of hobbyists who like maintaining obsolete hardware. We're far more likely to kill interesting new projects in the egg by making support for those platforms a requirement than by failing to support them.

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"fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler"

Posted Feb 13, 2021 20:10 UTC (Sat) by sthibaul (✭ supporter ✭, #54477) [Link] (3 responses)

> The problem in this case is not so much the difficulty of making the port but the lack of resources to do the porting.

That's the original question of the article, yes. But the same difficulty will be faced by new platforms, the difference being that you won't see them not-appear.

"fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler"

Posted Feb 14, 2021 18:59 UTC (Sun) by laarmen (subscriber, #63948) [Link]

I don't know, this reasoning sound weird to me. If I make my language hard to port on ENIAC, it will most likely make it harder to port it on new platforms that behave like ENIAC, thus limiting the opportunities of building new platforms that differ from the currently supported platforms in the same way that ENIAC does.

If it's a new platform shouldn't we assume that it will behave more like current platforms than older ones? Otherwise, why do you need a new platform as the older one already exist? Of course you can say that the new platform is a variant of the older one but running much much faster, but that's only because it doesn't and its properties are custom built to support your argument. An empty set can have any property you want it to.

"fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler"

Posted Feb 15, 2021 22:45 UTC (Mon) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75) [Link] (1 responses)

The difference is that building an interesting new hardware platform is inherently a major undertaking, and it's only going to be done by an organization with substantial resources. That includes the resources to port all the significant languages to work with their new platform. Being able to do that is more or less required for a new platform to be interesting. A platform that can't run the languages people care about isn't very interesting.

"fringe platforms which can't even run a Rust compiler"

Posted Feb 15, 2021 22:47 UTC (Mon) by sthibaul (✭ supporter ✭, #54477) [Link]

> building an interesting new hardware platform

I'm not talking only about hardware platform, but also OS.

> That includes the resources to port all the significant languages to work with their new platform.

Yes, but that doesn't mean that projects shouldn't make reasonable attempts to make it not too hard.