this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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Sublinks Aims to Be a Drop-In Replacement for Lemmy (wedistribute.org)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Seems like an interesting effort. A developer is building an alternative Java-based backend to Lemmy's Rust-based one, with the goal of building in a handful of different features. The dev is looking at using this compatibility to migrate their instance over to the new platform, while allowing the community to use their apps of choice.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's kind of ironic taking a project that's already written in Rust and writing a replacement for it in Java.

Usually things get ported to Rust, not the other way around.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

Yeah this sounds like someone doesn't know rust and instead of learning it they're porting to Java? It might also be a way to capture an existing userbase as it's still compatible with lemmy, but also adds features that might cause more people to use it. But being written in Java is an excuse to make it more difficult to migrate the additions back upstream to lemmy. Maybe they hope that this will eventually allow them to build out a private platform?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I don't think I want anything Java running on my systems...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Same. Let's slow things down! IDK what they were thinking?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, Java has faster developer speed since it's much less complicated than Rust. But it will also use a lot more memory. That being said, I guess most of what happens in Lemmy is database queries anyway and that will go equally fast in Java.

Rust is a very fast language but for a web app like Lemmy it's probably not that important that it's rust underneath.

But I really dislike Java. Lots of issues with code only working on a specific JDK, and code being very ugly due to all classes and shit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Java has faster developer speed since it’s much less complicated than Rust

[citation needed]

To give some context: Exception-based error handling is insanely complex. The error handling of Rust is much simpler to reason about. Finding out where errors happen is a lot simpler.

The only Java dev I know is an older guy who started university with me at the same time - I was 20, he was 45. He knew Java, I didn't. Java is not the future if you ask me.