this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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Rust
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I'm actually surprised there is no specification. It's how I thought languages were written: spec first, implementation later. Do RFCs serve this purpose?
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That's actually not how any language has ever been written, though it's easy to get that impression from how much the C and C++ communities emphasize their formal specifications.
But in fact, both languages were in production use for over a decade before they had a formal spec. And languages with formal specifications are actually a tiny minority of programming languages.
That requires a complete picture and all possible use cases from the start. Initially then a language is new and hardly used there are much to benefit from flexibility and trying new concepts. Then as the language matures, a more formal process is needed to ensure stability. There is a reason these discussions comes now, since rust is in a very stable phase.
There might also just not be a single spec because the information is spread out over RFCs instead of being collected in a central location.
Welcome to the real world. /s