cargo-script-mvs VS convey

The eRFC was intentionally light on details so the Pre-RFC / IRLO thread and the demo best reflect what we hope to accomplish which are pretty detailed as-is.

> A) is easy to write one off scripts that do a job fast, with minimal thinking and effort. I am thinking of Python and Ruby. For me I can write code with high velocity in these languages.

Once I wrap up some other projects, I plan to explore this space a little bit within Rust.

imo the biggest bang for the buck is just having good `#!` support. Probably mid-year I expect to have a Pre-RFC up for single-file cargo packages. See https://github.com/epage/cargo-script-mvs/discussions/15.

A bigger effort is a batteries included, non-zero cost stdlib. I've started writing up my thoughts at https://github.com/ergo-rs/ergo.

For more background on why I think these are important, see https://epage.github.io/blog/2021/09/learning-rust/.

Would love feedback on these ideas and other ways to make Rust easy to use without sacrificing what makes Rust it is.

This is something I'm interested. Every time I write a bash or Python script, I think "why didn't I do this in Rust?". The first barrier is in the same line as your thoughts which is why I've been investigating the various cargo-script spin-offs and working towards an MVP for a Pre-RFC.

Something I've been thinking a lot about for Rust is what can and should a REPL experience be for a compiled language (ie what are reasonable compromises).

There seem to be two repls that haven't gotten much traction:

- https://github.com/google/evcxr/blob/main/evcxr_repl/README....

- https://github.com/sigmaSd/IRust

There have been little and big nits that have held me back from wanting to push these further, including

- Bad defaults (having to opt-in to panic handling)

- Command syntax feeling out of place and likely not beginner friendly

- Limits on variable preservation

- Lack of introspection (at least irust as `:type`)

So far I've been punting on wanting to improve this area by instead focusing on polishing up a rust script solution in the hopes of getting it merged: https://github.com/epage/cargo-script-mvs

rust-script is the most up-to-date version I could find. See https://github.com/epage/cargo-script-mvs/discussions/15

cargo-script has been forked or reimplemented several times.

cargo-script: I've done some initial analysis and recorded my thoughts on what cargo-script in Rust should look like. If people are interested in this or other individual / company on-boarding improvements, I'd love to talk!

Fully agree with this though I also feel there is room for experimentation and improvement in this area. I've previously blogged on this and have started researching cargo-script. Hopefully later I'll get to my standard-adjacent library.

Few years back, Convey[1] has apparently outran HAProxy in an alleged benchmark by the author[2]. That's a one man project (now abandoned, sadly) outrunning a decade old product built by an enterprise company AND a big community AND spearheaded and designed by a data structure genius. Granted, only in one of many tricks HAProxy can pull, but still. Not a database but indeed a concurrent world-facing RealWork software. If true (didn't actually check myself), I'd say it fits your bill.

Personally, I read that as "can be as fast as, but without you having to be Willy Tarreau level genius" which is all I need.

It's easier/more-intuitive to do a lot of things in C++, but safe, high performing C++ is certainly harder than safe, high performing Rust for huge swaths of use-cases. Also, as has been mentioned, its type system that benefitted from the PL research since the 80s also allows for nicer expression of business logic. In particular, this means that in Rust, unlike C, Go, or even C++ in great part, you are not writing in the same low-level intricate language at every level of your stack i.e. it can be a nicer high-level experience the higher you go if you designed your lower tiers well.

And that last thing to me is the biggest advantage it has over the competition.

Off course, there is also the fact that juggling dependencies in a non-trivial C++ project was a nightmare until recently with vcpkg and it's manifest mode and that will take probably another decade to become commonplace in the ecosystem (if ever).

[1]: https://github.com/bparli/convey

custom domain-specific load balancer based on convey code (https://github.com/bparli/convey)