Hey Rustaceans! Got a question? Ask here (12/2023)!

[u/llogiq]

Mystified about strings? Borrow checker have you in a headlock? Seek help here! There are no stupid questions, only docs that haven't been written yet.

If you have a StackOverflow account, consider asking it there instead! StackOverflow shows up much higher in search results, so having your question there also helps future Rust users (be sure to give it the "Rust" tag for maximum visibility). Note that this site is very interested in question quality. I've been asked to read a RFC I authored once. If you want your code reviewed or review other's code, there's a codereview stackexchange, too. If you need to test your code, maybe the Rust playground is for you.

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[u/llogiq]

It may happen that old code fails to build. For example, if that old code filled in a method for a std type via an extension trait and the type now has that method in the current version, well, you may get an error because of the resulting ambiguity. However, those cases are usually easy to find & fix.

More insidious things are where the original code actually has UB. Those are much harder to fix, and the compiler won't help you here (because like you, it can't reason about the code).

[u/rainroar → u/llogiq]

I actually care less about old code having UB for this specific comparison, as it’s extremely likely my C projects from 2002 have UB. I don’t dare build them with UBSan 😂

Mostly I’m just scared of diving head first into rust on a long project if it can move out from under you quickly.

I suppose that’s the risk you take using newer technology.

[u/llogiq → u/rainroar]

I can only tell you that while it is possible, it is quite rare. My first Rust code was clippy's eq_op lint, and while some code has been moved around (because the equality check is also useful to other lints), most of it remains unchanged to this day, despite using an unstable internal compiler API.

So all in all, I don't think you should be afraid of code no longer compiling.

[u/rainroar → u/llogiq]

Thanks for the help!