0_basics

Step 0: Become familiar with Rust basics

Estimated time: 3 days

Read through Rust Book, Rust FAQ, and become familiar with basic Rust concepts, syntax, memory model, type and module systems.

Polish your familiarity by completing Rust By Example and rustlings.

Read through Cargo Book and become familiar with Cargo and its workspaces.

After completing these steps, you should be able to answer (and understand why) the following questions:

• What memory model Rust has? Is it single-threaded or multiple-threaded? Is it synchronous or asynchronous?
• What runtime Rust has? Does it use a GC (garbage collector)?
• What statically typing means? What is a benefit of using it?
• What are generics and parametric polymorphism? Which problems do they solve?
• What are traits? How are they used? How do they compare to interfaces? What are an auto trait and a blanket impl? What is a marker trait?
• What are static and dynamic dispatches? Which should I use, and when?
• What is a crate and what is a module in Rust? How do they differ? How are the used?
• What are move semantics? What are borrowing rules? What is the benefit of using them?
• What is immutability? What is the benefit of using it?
• What is cloning? What is copying? How do they compare?
• What is RAII? How is it implemented in Rust? What is the benefit of using it?
• What is an iterator? What is a collection? How do they differ? How are they used?
• What are macros? Which problems do they solve? What is the difference between declarative and procedural macro?
• How code is tested in Rust? Where should you put tests and why?
• Why Rust has &str and String types? How do they differ? When should you use them?
• What are lifetimes? Which problems do they solve? Which benefits do they give?
• Is Rust OOP language? Is it possible to use SOLID/GRASP? Does it have an inheritance?

Additional articles, which may help to understand the above topic better:

• Chris Morgan: Rust ownership, the hard way
• Adolfo Ochagavía: You are holding it wrong
• Vikram Fugro: Beyond Pointers: How Rust outshines C++ with its Borrow Checker
• Sabrina Jewson: Why the “Null” Lifetime Does Not Exist
• HashRust: A guide to closures in Rust
• Ludwig Stecher: Rusts Module System Explained
• Tristan Hume: Models of Generics and Metaprogramming: Go, Rust, Swift, D and More
• Jeff Anderson: Generics Demystified Part 1
• Jeff Anderson: Generics Demystified Part 2
• Bradford Hovinen: Demystifying trait generics in Rust
• Brandon Smith: Three Kinds of Polymorphism in Rust
• Jeremy Steward: C++ & Rust: Generics and Specialization
• Lukasz Uszko: Safe and Secure Coding in Rust: A Comparative Analysis of Rust and C/C++
• cooscoos: &stress about &Strings
• Jimmy Hartzell: RAII: Compile-Time Memory Management in C++ and Rust
• Georgios Antonopoulos: Rust vs Common C++ Bugs
• Yurii Shymon: True Observer Pattern with Unsubscribe mechanism using Rust
• Clayton Ramsey: I built a garbage collector for a language that doesn't need one