Opened This Week

• include_bytes_deps, optimization-remarks-dir-pgo, optimization-remarks-dir, issue-40535 and rmeta-preferred
• remap-path-prefix, debug-assertions and emit-stack-sizes
• unknown-mod-stdin, issue-68794-textrel-on-minimal-lib, raw-dylib-cross-compilation and used-cdylib-macos
• pdb-alt-path, mismatching-target-triples and mingw-export-call-convention

Merged This Week

• symlinked-extern, symlinked-rlib and symlinked-libraries
• relocation-model, error-writing-dependencies and crate-name-priority
• extern-flag-rename-transitive, debugger-visualizer-dep-info, metadata-flag-frobs-symbols, extern-overrides-distribution and forced-unwind-terminate-pof
• link-arg, link-dedup and clear-error-blank-output
• bin-emit-no-symbols
• link-args-order, ls-metadata and lto-readonly-lib
• inaccessible-temp-dir, output-with-hyphens and issue-10971-temps-dir
• issue-64153, invalid-staticlib and no-builtins-lto
• extern-flag-fun, incremental-debugger-visualiser and incremental-session-fail
• error-found-staticlib-instead-crate, output-filename-conflicts-with-directory, output-filename-overwrites-input, native-link-modifier-verbatim-rustc and native-link-verbatim-linker
• separate-link, separate-link-fail and allocator-shim-circular-deps

Still Open

• intrinsic-unreachable, sepcomp-cci-copies, sepcomp-inlining and sepcomp-separate
• std-core-cycle, obey-crate-type-flag, mixing-libs and issue-18943
• compiler-lookup-paths, dump-mono-stats and prune-link-args

Makefiles remaining: 207/352 - 41.2% ported

Glamour In The Obscure

I find it amusing how much of the trouble this week revolved around Windows-based gimmicks. Normalizing for backslashes, a completely different view on how filesystem permissions function, constant filename conversions... And yet, it is the most popular OS for personal use, by a titanic landslide!

It's quite clear why. Everyone uses it and every major application is built for it, so you should also get it to avoid compatibility issues, which leads you to make more software for it, and so on, in a self-replicating loop.

Some believe that for any given product, you can invest funds in either making the thing good (engineering), or making the thing popular (marketing). Therefore, the very best products in any category will be only spread by word-of-mouth, and anything you see plastered in an advertisement will necessarily not be the best possible choice - only the most obvious.

That's partially a fallacy, isn't it? Not every product is made with the same amount of resources... but then, the amount of resources spent also does not perfectly correlate with quality of a product...

What a twisted puzzle. I wanted to go somewhere with this point, though. Right now, I am contributing to the Rust programming language and I feel extremely cool and smug about it. Because, well, it's the promising new kid on the block. The rising star. That thing every developer has "heard of" and put somewhere down on their "learn this someday" list at some random double-digit position. It's actually bringing a new standard and design philosophy that solves real problems real engineers have, and I admire that vision.

I wonder if the glamour will dissipate if Rust ever "goes big". It wouldn't be this obscure secret technocult anymore, and-

Hehe, look at me, sounding like that meme swinging around the "year of the Linux desktop". I have no idea what the future holds, all I know is that I am enjoying myself, right here, right now.