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from the Obfuscated-Rust-Competition-doesn't-sound-right dept.
In spite of my status and obvious bias as co-creator of D, I'll do my best to answer candidly; I follow Go and Rust, and I also definitely know where D's dirty laundry is. I'd encourage people with similar positions in the Rust and Go communities to share their honest opinion as well. So here goes.
First off, C++ needs to be somewhere in the question. Whether it's to be replaced alongside C, or be one of the candidates that's supposed to replace C, the C++ language is a key part of the equation. It's the closest language to C and the obvious step up from it. Given C++'s age, I'll assume in the following that the question also puts C++ alongside with C as a target for replacement.
Each language has a number of fundamental advantages (I call them "10x advantages" because they are qualitatively in a different league compared to at least certain baselines) and a number of challenges. The future of these languages, and their success in supplanting C, depends on how they can use their 10x advantages strategically, and how they overcome their challenges.
[Another way to look at this is to ask "What is wrong with C?" and then assess how well these languages solve those problems. -Ed.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2015, @04:10PM
The reason we haven't seen a lot of replacements for C or C++ is because few people use languages that are so low level these days. Sure, there are a lot of programmers that currently use a low level language and need to, but as a percentage of the overall programming workforce, their share is quite small and getting smaller every day.
You could say the "need" isn't strong enough to prompt a major company to replace what we currently have in the segment of low level, high control, pure speed, low code size, and no garbage collection programming languages. It's accepted at this point that only experts are going to use such a language, and they will master what they must. What language is 5 times better than the existing C or C++? That's what it would take for a new language to succeed. That, plus C interoperability, because C is going to be with us for quite a long while...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Friday November 13 2015, @11:24PM
The problem these days is that there are people using C++ (in their droves) who should be using proper high-level languages. People who have never heard of LISP are particularly difficult to reach.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].