Decision Checklist for New Project

decision-checklist.md

Decision Checklist for New Project

Question	Answer?	Implication
Do I need deterministic memory usage and zero‑copy performance?	Yes → Consider Rust. No → Go/Python fine.
Is the workload I/O‑bound (many concurrent connections, network, DB queries)?	Yes → Node.js (event‑driven) or Go (goroutine pool).
Is the workload CPU‑heavy and parallelizable?	Yes → Rust (or Go with many workers).
Do I need to ship a single static binary for easy deployment?	Yes → Go or Rust (both compile to static binaries).
Do I need a huge ecosystem of third‑party libraries (ML, data, web UI)?	Yes → Python (or JS for web).
Is rapid prototyping / frequent iteration a priority?	Yes → Python or JS.
Do I have a team comfortable with a particular language?	Leverage that expertise; the learning curve cost often outweighs micro‑optimizations.
Are there regulatory or safety requirements (e.g., no runtime exceptions)?	Yes → Rust (compile‑time guarantees).
Is binary size a constraint (e.g., embedded, serverless)?	Yes → Rust (can produce tiny WASM).
Do I need built‑in async/await with first‑class cancellation?	Yes → Rust (async-std/tokio) or Node.js (native).