This chapter covers:
- Introduction to Rust
- Overview of the language and its purpose
- Rust versus other programming languages
- How to get the most out of this book
This book helps people new to Rust get up to speed on the language, tooling, design patterns, and best practices as quickly as possible. By the end of this book, you should feel confident building production grade software systems with Rust.
Rust offers compelling features for those looking to build fast, safe programs. Some people might find Rust’s learning curve a bit steep, but this book can help clarify concepts and provide practical advice to get you up to speed.
The book is written for those already familiar with Rust, and it will be of much benefit to the reader to have experience with other system-level programming languages such as C, C++, or Java. You need not be an expert in Rust to get value out of this book, but I won’t spend much time introducing basic syntax, history, or programming concepts in Rust.
Figure 1.1. Rust language logo, by the Rust core team, CC BY 4.0
Rust is a modern programming language with a focus on performance and safety. It has all the features you may want or expect in a modern programming language like closures, generics, asynchronous I/O, powerful tooling, IDE integrations, linters and style checking tools, and a vibrant growing community of developers and contributors.
Figure 1.2. Where Rust fits in language classifications
