Effective Rust

Preface

The code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.

Hector Barbossa

In the crowded landscape of modern programming languages, Rust is different. Rust offers the speed of a compiled language, the efficiency of a non-garbage-collected language, and the type safety of a functional language—as well as a unique solution to memory safety problems. As a result, Rust regularly polls as the most loved programming language.

The strength and consistency of Rust’s type system means that if a Rust program compiles, there is already a decent chance that it will work—a phenomenon previously observed only with more academic, less accessible languages such as Haskell. If a Rust program compiles, it will also work safely.

This safety—both type safety and memory safety—does come with a cost, though. Despite the quality of the basic documentation, Rust has a reputation for having a steep on-ramp, where newcomers have to go through the initiation rituals of fighting the borrow checker, redesigning their data structures, and being befuddled by lifetimes. A Rust program that compiles may have a good chance of working the first time, but the struggle to get it to compile is real—even with the Rust compiler’s remarkably helpful error diagnostics.

Who This Book Is For

This book tries to help with these areas where programmers struggle, even if they already have experience with an existing compiled language like C++. As such—and in common with other Effective <Language> books—this ...