Lifetime guide refactoring

[alan-andrade]

Still a work in progress but interested in early feedback.

#13987

[steveklabnik]

Is there a particular motivation for this change?

[alan-andrade]

I wanted to get rid of the "managed and exchange heap" concept.

However, I can see that I deleted an important things like:

• the Rust compiler includes special static checks that ensure that programs use references safely.
• working with references helps reduce the overhead of automatic memory management.

Sidenote:

A goal I have in mind is to change the guides to use the words "pointers" and "references" consistently. Given that a references != pointer. Correct?

[steveklabnik]

I would agree with that, yes.

[alan-andrade]

question.

A reference is as flexible as a C pointer or C++ reference.

In what ways ? I don't think we should compare references with C pointers. It's confusing for the new comers (assuming they are the targeted audience).

Also:

the core concepts will be familiar to anyone who has worked with C or C++

afaik the community is not interested in the dynamic languages new comers, should we really exclude them this bad ?

What's your opinion ?

[steveklabnik]

should we really exclude them this bad

This is a perpetual question. The current answer is "assume people have systems experience, and let's create some helper stuff to get non-systems people up to speed."

I don't see this language as exclusionary, I see it was "for more, check out this concept in C or C++." Though maybe changing it to simply say that will be better.

[alan-andrade]

I agree.
After reading the comment today I think I was being very dramatic. Small changes in phrasing can make a difference though.

Thanks for the feedback <3

[steveklabnik]

No worries. :) You're totally right, small changes can matter.

[alan-andrade]

hey @steveklabnik I wonder if you could provide some input on something.

I was going through the pointers guide and I think there are lots of overlapping concepts. I'm starting to think that merging both guides would make sense.

Also, in the pointers guide, I believe there's an important mix of concepts that could be confusing. Again, since pointers != references, I don't think the guide is using the correct wording. Note that the ideas behind it are correct.

Thanks : )

[steveklabnik]

There are overlapping concepts, but I think it's a big and important enough topic to have its own guide.

[alan-andrade]

Closing and will reopen briefly with full changes.