chapter one

1 Introducing Rust

 

This chapter covers:

  • Highlighting some great features of the language and its community
  • Exposing you to Rust’s syntax
  • Introducing the goals of the project
  • Discussing where Rust might be useful and when to avoid it
  • Building your first Rust program
  • Explaining how Rust compares to object-oriented and wider languages

Welcome to Rust, the empowering programming language. Once you scratch the surface, you will find a programming language with unparalleled speed and safety that is still comfortable to use.

Rust in Action will build your confidence as a Rust programmer. It is a book for intermediate programmers (of all backgrounds) who prefer to learn by implementing practical examples.

Reading this book will teach you more than Rust. You’ll be able to learn more about how a CPU works, how computers keep time, what pointers are and how your network card and keyboard tell the CPU that they have input ready to be processed.

Rust has established a strong following. In Stack Overflow’s annual developer survey, Rust has won “most loved programming language” in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. The distinction is awarded to the language that has the highest proportion of current developers in the language who want to continue using it.

1.1 How is Rust used?

The language has proven its ability to build powerful, reliable software.

Large technology leaders have adopted Rust:

1.2 What is it like to advocate for Rust at work?

1.3 Installing Rust

1.4 A taste of the language

1.4.1 Cheating your way to "Hello, world!"

1.4.2 Your First Rust Program

1.5 Downloading the book’s source code

1.6 What does Rust look and feel like?

1.7 What is Rust?

1.7.1 Goal of Rust: safety

1.7.2 Goal of Rust: productivity

1.7.3 Goal of Rust: control

1.8 Rust’s Big Features

1.8.1 Performance

1.8.2 Concurrency

1.8.3 Memory Efficiency

1.9 Downsides of Rust

1.9.1 Cyclic data structures

1.9.2 Compile times

1.9.3 Strictness