I finally started playing with Rust, after not having seriously coded in any compiled language for years, and… I am really liking it.
The compiler shouts at me, but also provides all the context I need to figure out what's wrong.
Most of the time once I do figure it out, my brain goes "ooh right, yeah, that makes sense!"
It feels like coding with a safety net: I am reasonably sure I won't end up doing something massively memory-unsafe. And it helps a lot when refactoring, too!
I understand how to a lot of people – especially anyone really fluent in other low-level statically typed languages – Rust's approach might feel restrictive or extra work.
To me it feels restrictive and extra work the same way writing proper tests does: indeed it is, but what you get for that extra effort is peace of mind that is really valuable.
I guess now would be a good time to write some tests for my little Rust side-projects, ironically.