Ideally, one would learn Rust and C++ both and see how they differ, and why.
It's not going to be a particularly interesting thread if everyone who works in a language that trends higher than Go on Google chimes in to say "you should learn my language instead, because it's more popular".
> Ideally, one would learn Rust and C++ both and see how they differ, and why.
Aside from uninteresting language-specific details, C++ essentially doesn't teach you anything that Rust doesn't.
I think C++ is unique in that it is really not as popular as many new languages, not as trendy and as much in the news, and not even taught as much in college programs, yet, it remains the language where so many jobs are. This gives anyone with the desire to learn it a good and marketable skill that can make it possibly easier to find work and continue making a living doing software development. That does not apply to Rust, so I think it's a fair point to make to anyone who is asking about what languages are good to learn.
As for whether C++ has any techniques to teach that Rust does not, C++ is definitely a unique experience to go through and certainly gives a developer more insight into the actual machine they are working on in a way that few languages do.
So, anyone following your argument should skip C++ and learn COBOL because COBOL is easier to learn, in widespread use, and has jobs available.
>In 2006 and 2012, Computerworld surveys found that over 60% of organizations used COBOL (more than C++ and Visual Basic .NET) and that for half of those, COBOL was used for the majority of their internal software. 36% of managers said they planned to migrate from COBOL, and 25% said they would like to if it was cheaper. Instead, some businesses have migrated their systems from expensive mainframes to cheaper, more modern systems, while maintaining their COBOL programs.
This is exactly right, and it's been true for many years now. That your old codebase is written in C++ is a totally legitimate reason to use C++.
But really, what's the point? The reasons you'd learn a low-level systems language are to learn how to manage memory and resources, to learn how to explicitly lay out data and to understand how to program without a runtime. Both Rust and C++ will teach you these.
