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Flattening Rust’s learning curve

(corrode.dev)
451 points birdculture | 1 comments | 13 May 25 22:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.319s | source
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sesm ◴[14 May 25 01:11 UTC] No.43979679[source]▶
Is there a concise document that explains major decisions behind Rust language design for those who know C++? Not a newbie tutorial, just straight to the point: why in-place mutability instead of other options, why encourage stack allocation, what problems with C++ does it solve and at what cost, etc.
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abirch ◴[14 May 25 01:19 UTC] No.43979717[source]▶
I think the major decisions behind Rust is being explicit and making the programmer make decisions. No NULLs, no Implicit conversions, no dangling pointers. Lifetimes, Optional, Results, each Match branch needs to exist, etc.

Side note: Stack allocation is faster to execute as there's a higher probability of it being cached.

Here is a free book for a C++ to Rust explanation. https://vnduongthanhtung.gitbooks.io/migrate-from-c-to-rust/...

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sesm ◴[14 May 25 02:23 UTC] No.43980072[source]▶
> being explicit and making the programmer make decisions

Why RAII then?

> C++ to Rust explanation

I've seen this one. It is very newbie oriented, filled with trivial examples and doesn't even have Rust refs to C++ smart pointers comparison table.

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1. landr0id ◴[14 May 25 02:34 UTC] No.43980130[source]▶
>> being explicit and making the programmer make decisions

>Why RAII then?

Their quote is probably better rephrased as _being explicit and making the programmer make decisions when the compiler's decision might impact safety_

Implicit conversion between primitives may impact the safety of your application. Implicit memory management and initialization is something the compiler can do safely and is central to Rust's safety story.