1 Introducing Rust

 

This chapter covers:

  • Introducing Rust’s features and goals
  • Exposing Rust’s syntax
  • Discussing where to use Rust 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 its surface, you will not only find a programming language with unparalleled speed and safety, but one that is still comfortable to use. Your investment in learning Rust will be rewarded!

When you begin to program in Rust, it’s likely that you will want to continue to do so. And this book, Rust in Action, will build your confidence as a Rust programmer. But, it will not teach you how to program from the beginning. This book is intended to be read by people who are considering Rust as their next language, and for those who enjoy implementing practical working examples. Here is a list of some of the larger examples this book covers:

  • Mandelbrot set renderer
  • A grep clone
  • CPU emulator
  • Generative art
  • A database
  • HTTP, NTP, and hexdump clients
  • LOGO language interpreter
  • Operating system kernel

1.1 Where is Rust used?

1.2 Advocating for Rust at work

1.3 A taste of the language

1.3.1 Cheating your way to “Hello, world!”

1.3.2 Your first Rust program

1.4 Downloading the book’s source code

1.5 What does Rust look and feel like?

1.6 What is Rust?

1.6.1 Goal of Rust: Safety

1.6.2 Goal of Rust: Productivity

1.6.3 Goal of Rust: Control

1.7 Rust’s big features

1.7.1 Performance

1.7.2 Concurrency

1.7.3 Memory efficiency

1.8 Downsides of Rust

1.8.1 Cyclic data structures

1.8.2 Compile times

1.8.3 Strictness

1.8.4 Size of the language

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