Rust for Beginners

Introduction

This guide has been created with beginners in mind who are looking for a friendly and easy approach to mastering the Rust programming language.

If you are intrigued by the idea of ​​creating solid and efficient software and diving into modern systems development, you will find the right companion in this book. You'll see topics like: Setting Up Your Rust Environment, Understanding Ownership, Variables and Data Types, Control Flow, Functions and Modules and more.

A little history before starting...

2006-2009: Origins at Mozilla

Origins at Mozilla (2006): Rust's story begins at Mozilla in 2006, where it was conceived as a side project by Mozilla employee Graydon Hoare.

Mozilla Research (2009): Rust officially became a Mozilla Research project in 2009, with the goal of creating a new systems programming language with a focus on safety and performance.

2010-2014: Language Development

First Announcements (2010-2011): The first announcements about Rust were made in 2010-2011. Early versions of the language were experimental and evolved rapidly.

0.1 Release (2012): Rust 0.1, the first numbered release, was made available in January 2012. It was a pre-alpha release, and the language continued to evolve.

Community Involvement (2012-2014): The Rust community grew, and contributions from developers outside Mozilla became increasingly significant. The language saw regular releases, and stability and feature development were ongoing goals.

2015-2017: Stable Releases and Widening Adoption

1.0 Stable Release (2015): One of the major milestones was the stable release of Rust 1.0 in May 2015. This marked a commitment to backward compatibility and signaled that Rust was ready for production use.

Rustacean Logo (2015): The community adopted the Rustacean logo, featuring a friendly crab, as a symbol of the Rust programming language.

Mozilla Foundation Restructuring (2016): In 2016, Mozilla restructured its development priorities, and Rust became more independent, with its own separate release cycles.

2018 Edition (2018): Rust 2018 Edition was released, introducing improvements in syntax, tooling, and documentation. Editions allow the language to evolve without breaking existing code.

2019-Present: Growth and Industry Adoption

Rust 1.39 (2019): Rust 1.39 introduced the async/await syntax, making asynchronous programming more ergonomic.

Rust in 2020 and 2021: Rust continued to gain traction in various industries. Companies like Mozilla, Dropbox, and Amazon adopted Rust for specific use cases, appreciating its emphasis on safety and performance.

Rust 2021 Edition (2021): The Rust 2021 Edition focused on productivity improvements, with features like const generics and associated type defaults.

Wider Industry Adoption (Ongoing): Rust has seen increasing adoption across diverse domains, including systems programming, web development, networking, and more. Its emphasis on memory safety and performance has made it attractive for projects requiring robustness.

Rust 2022 Edition and Beyond: The Rust language continues to evolve with regular releases. The Rust community actively collaborates on language enhancements, library development, and ecosystem growth.

The history of Rust reflects its journey from a research project at Mozilla to a widely adopted and respected programming language. Its success is attributed to its strong community, focus on safety, and commitment to evolving with the needs of developers and industry applications. As Rust continues to mature, it stands as a testament to the possibilities of creating a modern programming language that addresses critical challenges in systems programming.