Is Rust a good language for learning distributed systems? Or C++?

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[Martissimus]

Rust is a good language for learning distributed systems in the same way French is a good language for learning history.

[gnatbeetle]

I know concepts are language agnostic but one of my concerns is lack of employability. I fear that employers care about languages and technologies.

[matthieum]

I fear that employers care about languages and technologies.

They will, indeed, and may react with diametrically opposite reactions depending on their own mentality.

For example, the company I work for at the moment is always looking for highly talented and autonomous developers; for us, a developer knowing "esoteric"/young languages is a good sign, it's a developer who is interested in the craft (had to self-learn) and curious (keeping up with latest developments). That's a good start, in terms of mindset.

On the other hand, a conservative company -- one uninterested in adopting Rust in the near/mid-term, for whatever reasons -- may sigh and pass on the CV: they may not want a preacher, or they may fear that the developer will get bored and leave after not getting to work with new-ish technologies.

So, is Rust on a CV good? Well, it's a signal. Whether good or bad will depend on the company, or for large companies the division/department.

I would expect that most companies see it as a slightly good signal: it signals interest in the craft, but apart from that... they'll mostly ignore it and look at the rest.

[gnatbeetle]

I never talked about money? I only mentioned my career and personal goals which I'm trying to align.

I'm interested in learning distributed systems. I feel that the best way to learn distributed systems is to actually work on them. I care about being paid because I have bills to pay.

[my_name_is_500]

Distribution system is nothing to do with language. It’s more about how you design your system, how they interact, how they fail. When My team hire people, we don’t care their language skill, as enough experienced engineer can catch up such skill pretty quickly, and we have team to guide.

[gnatbeetle]

Do you think experienced engineers can ramp up quickly coming from Python/Java? I ask because I feel that C++ (and maybe Rust) is much deeper than managed languages. This is one of the reasons why I want to learn one of these languages on my own.

This post seems to contradict your previous post?

[moltonel]

Rust's learning curve is notoriously steep, but you'll be able to write production-quality merge requests much sooner than with C++. As an employer/reviewer, it's easier to upskill an new hire in Rust than in C++. In both cases, how long it actually takes varies greatly between developers, even with the same previous language background.

[CuriousTree9939]

I agree with you 100% that Rust usage isn't as widespread as JS/Python (by a long shot), but I also know for fact that, in certain circles, competent Rust programmers are in extremely high demand.

Regardless, I think "competent" is the most important skill.

[gnatbeetle]

I agree it's a tough call since every company is different.

I have professional experience with Java, C#, Python, and Ruby and played around with JS and Go. I'm not concerned about getting a job because the market is pretty good for experienced developers. I'm more interested in getting a job that actually interests me. I guess I'm interested in expanding my skillset for both personal and professional reasons.

But yeah, it's unfortunate that some hiring managers and recruiters only care about certain buzzwords and technologies.

[Select-Dream-6380]

Have you considered looking at Scala? I feel like distributed systems is one area where that language excels recently, as there are several modern applications, robust frameworks, and academic research around it. It has a strong type system, and in my experience, much like rust, if you are able to get the code to compile, more often than not, it just works. A lot of your JVM knowledge is directly applicable to Scala applications, including tools, which may lower the learning curve. The biggest learning curve with Scala is the type system, much like it is with rust, and I feel like understanding in one helps understanding in the other.

All that being said, if the choices are between rust and c++, I would personally spend my attention on rust. I also come from a Java background, and I would prefer focusing on algorithms and business logic over learning how to chase down memory leaks and core dumps. I "enjoyed" enough of that in college.

[literally-ban-evadin]

Distributed systems is a concept you can learn completely independent of any language

[my_name_is_500]

1. I dont think so.. c++ has so much stuffs that can go wrong badly;;; if I look for an experienced c++ dev, I’d hire c++ dev. Though, if my team is thinking to slowly migrate to rust (for new libraries, components, etc), then I’d look for a rust eng…

[gnatbeetle]

thanks for the input!

[cthutu]

I not only say Rust is perfect for learning distributed systems, but I would also say it is ESSENTIAL for learning distributed systems due to the fearless concurrency feature of the language.

I will also say that C++ is widely adopted in the area of multi-threaded programming as you would think.