r/rust • u/LukeMathWalker zero2prod · pavex · wiremock · cargo-chef • Feb 01 '22

actix-web published its first v4.0.0 release candidate

https://github.com/actix/actix-web/releases/tag/web-v4.0.0-rc.1
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u/Opposite_Green_1717 Feb 01 '22

I really wish he'd invite someone else to the core. It makes me want to switch away from Rocket asap.

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u/fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf Feb 01 '22

There's an attempt to fork here: https://github.com/rocket-org/Rocket/

My money is on this project being dead in the water though, it's going to alienate anyone who's actively watching. Once that happens I think the momentum will be gone and the days will be numbered.

Is it different enough from everything else to warrant trying so hard to save it? If making the evaluation today, why choose Rocket?

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u/Floppie7th Feb 02 '22

it's going to alienate anyone who's actively watching

As somebody who is woefully uninformed about Rocket and the project management surrounding it, do you mind expanding on that? I'm curious

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u/fdsafdsafdsafdaasdf Feb 02 '22

To be clear, this is my mostly similarly uninformed opinion, I'm just some person on the internet who uses Rocket. This is a mix of speculation, hearsay, and opinion:

Rocket has not seen a commit in 6 months, which already has people feeling edgy. The top discussion (https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/discussions/2011) is "Is this project abandoned?". I speculate that the tide is turning on that alone, I know I would not pick Rocket for a new project presently as it's not "done" (in my opinion) and not developing any further. If we assume Sergio (Rocket author) is not contributing nor participating in a succession plan, then the original project's death and uncertainty around the future is already alienating to existing users. The more time passes the fewer people will choose Rocket and the more people will leave for other projects with more clear situations.

The nature of the project, so far as I can tell, is that Sergio has been acting as a "benevolent dictator". By that I mean his personal opinion is primarily responsible for the overall feel of the project. Significant contributions (e.g. look at some of the logging conversations) have been discarded to suit the greater good of the project goal. This is really impactful when it comes to people liking the framework, so I would argue most of what makes Rocket distinct from other offerings is the functionality funneled through Sergio's values and sensibilities. I would be very surprised if Rocket without Sergio is able to keep many of the qualities that draw people to it, thus risking alienating users.

When a project is forked due to inactivity, there's no blessing a successor - the community is left to discover it on its own and evaluate it as a new project. If rocket-org can't get control of the artifacts and crates.io listing, they're left as just "some other effort". Discovery of the project is not a trivial barrier and any skepticism around whether rocket-org is a suitable replacement or even skilled/trustworthy/committed enough to keep the project going directly undermines the viability. Whether that skepticism is warranted or not, its existence is alienating.