> Is Rust substantially better at this? When I read frustrations about Rust, it seems to be mostly about the Borrow Checker... does that affect "pedestrian" code, like "take this 4-dimensional array and munge it with an arcane for-loop"? Or, here's a basic immutable class with some fields and some methods, make it available in Python?
I think language complexity in general is not a problem; language consistency is. I find Rust complex, but not inconsistent or surprising (with exceptions). I'd say that yes, it is substantially better in this regard.
Regarding the "pedestrian code", it depends. Rust is very unergonomic for algorithms, due to its handling of bidirectional references. However, some algorithms/data structures may work fine; the matrix operation you refer to can be very easy to work with, if the elements are Clone/Copy, which numbers are.
I'm a Rust fan, but the article seems to be a puff piece; it takes one case and generalizes it. I also think that Rust is not productive [than other easy, compiled, languages] for generic programming, at least, without significant experience. Relatively small programs (I don't know the size of the typical scientific programs in academia) may be easier, but once a program grows, it definitely requires an amount of design (due to ownership) that other languages don't require.
I think language complexity in general is not a problem; language consistency is. I find Rust complex, but not inconsistent or surprising (with exceptions). I'd say that yes, it is substantially better in this regard.
Regarding the "pedestrian code", it depends. Rust is very unergonomic for algorithms, due to its handling of bidirectional references. However, some algorithms/data structures may work fine; the matrix operation you refer to can be very easy to work with, if the elements are Clone/Copy, which numbers are.
I'm a Rust fan, but the article seems to be a puff piece; it takes one case and generalizes it. I also think that Rust is not productive [than other easy, compiled, languages] for generic programming, at least, without significant experience. Relatively small programs (I don't know the size of the typical scientific programs in academia) may be easier, but once a program grows, it definitely requires an amount of design (due to ownership) that other languages don't require.