On Dependency Usage in Rust
A couple months back I read "C isn't a Hangover; Rust isn't a Hangover Cure" (original Medium link) by John Viega. I responded to the post already on Twitter (sometimes known as X) and in hindsight should have just written a blog post to begin with since the platform is so terrible for longform comment.
What follows is hopefully a more organized, digestable, and better response to John's post than what I wrote on Twitter. If you haven't read his post, I recommend giving it a read for full context instead of reading just what I've decided to directly respond to.
John's post goes into some concerns about using Rust and if Rust is really the right choice over something GC'd, and covers a few angles including whether memory safety really matters for you, what language best fits your team, and something that came up multiple times is dependency usage.
I disagree with some of the arguments John made surrounding dependencies and I frequently hear similar sentiments said by crowds who are anti-Rust. The idea that a program is less desirable or less secure because it has more dependencies. I find these arguments to be an easy jab lacking substance, and wanted to take an opportunity to challenge them.
