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> the issue is that they think Rust invented them

Sorry, my post wasn't to imply Rust invented those things. My point was Rust's success as a language is due to those features.

Of course there's more to it, but what Rust really does right is blend functional and imperative styles. The "match" statement is a great way to bring functional concepts to imperative programmers, because it "feels" like a familiar switch statement, but with super powers. So it's a good "gateway drug" if you will, because the benefit is quickly realized ("Oh, it caught that edge case for me before it became a problem at runtime, that would have been a headache...").

From there, you can learn how to use match as an expression, and then you start to wonder why "if" isn't an expression in every language. After that you're hooked.



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