> Rewrite a bundler in Rust and you haven't only made it faster. You've also shrunk the pool of JavaScript developers who can maintain it. The new tool still looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, but it's a different beast altogether. Its internals retreat behind a black box that fewer people hold the keys to. The source may still be open, but the door to contributions is closing.
Alternatively, there's a pool of JS developers who shouldn't be maintaining critical infrastructure to begin with.
It's not a black box, those codebases are usually open and the only thing holding you or anyone back is learning anything outside of a small pond of JavaScript.
Write non-browser-things in fast languages. It is not a complicated concept - even less so in an era where stuff is getting written for you.
Or just write faster JS using it's lower-level language features. Nothing about whatever collection of build tools the JS ecosystem uses "requires" rust/zig/c++/go for performance. It's a closed text transform problem.
The native languages are easier to get decent performance for sure but, braking the entire ecosystem and a generation of future contributors, for what should realistically be single or low double digit percent gains is not worth it.
Klonoar · · focus · HN ↗
Alternatively, there's a pool of JS developers who shouldn't be maintaining critical infrastructure to begin with.
It's not a black box, those codebases are usually open and the only thing holding you or anyone back is learning anything outside of a small pond of JavaScript.
Write non-browser-things in fast languages. It is not a complicated concept - even less so in an era where stuff is getting written for you.
suplexer · · focus · HN ↗
The native languages are easier to get decent performance for sure but, braking the entire ecosystem and a generation of future contributors, for what should realistically be single or low double digit percent gains is not worth it.
Klonoar · · focus · HN ↗
You are simply ignoring the history of these tools and why people have begun to reach for the languages in question.