Announcing the new Rust package manager, Cargo
I am very skeptical about this. Every language which needs a "package manager" tends to make building standalone applications painful.<p>I do think C++ is in dire need of being replaced, it is unsafe at any speed and full of legacy cruft. Unfortunately D jumped on the GC train and had other serious issues as well, allowing C++ to survive that attempt without a scratch.<p>Rust finally did the right thing, aiming for the same zero overhead/you only pay for what you use design which made C++ such a success.<p>However, C++ is a platform agnostic language, while Rust thus far has only supported Linux as a first class  platform. I find the attitude of the Rust devs ("we will improve Windows support once the language is stable") deeply misguided. It meant that they largely missed out on feedback from Windows developers during the development of the language. "Windows developers" also means all the AAA PC(+console) game developers (the most diehard C++ users). Linux still is not a relevant platform there.<p>And the Rust developers seem to continue to go down that rabbit hole by enlisting Ruby developers to develop a "package manager". As a Windows guy the very word makes me cringe. How is that thing going to integrate with Visual Studio and other Windows specific concerns?
Ruby only really works on Linux, first advice you get as a Windows guy wanting to learn Ruby is "Install Linux, if you try to do Ruby development on Windows you are in for a world of pain". I do not trust any Ruby developer to write portable software, they are married to the GNU/Linux  ecosystem. Would you expect Microsoft guys to develop something which actually works well on Linux?<p>Also remember that C++ does not have a "package manager". Some of the most complex and massive applications in the world are written in C++, yet you do not hear many C++ developers crying "When will we finally get a package manager?". It is not even on the agenda. C does not have one either.<p>"Package managers" are a Linux-ism, they deliver a certain UX you may or may not like (personally I hate it with passion), but they should not be part of a platform agnostic programming language. A package manager may belong to a Linux development environment for Rust, but the language itself and its library handling should be completely independent of it. Rust libraries should work just like C++ libraries so that they do integrate well with other development environments.<p>I see Rust becoming a new OCaml, utterly Linux-centric and thus leaving C++ as the sole competitor in the maximal performance + high-level abstractions + platform agnostic  category.<p>For the sake of games no longer crashing randomly because of memory corruption bugs: change course <i>now</i>.