Rust Brain Teasers

by Herbert Wolverson

The Rust programming language is consistent and does its best to avoid surprising the programmer. Like all languages, though, Rust still has its quirks. But these quirks present a teaching opportunity. In this book, you'll work through a series of brain teasers that will challenge your understanding of Rust. By understanding the gaps in your knowledge, you can become better at what you do and avoid mistakes. Many of the teasers in this book come from the author's own experience creating software. Others derive from commonly asked questions in the Rust community. Regardless of their origin, these brain teasers are fun, and let's face it: who doesn't love a good puzzle, right?

Genres: Programming, Software

120 pages, Paperback

Published March 9, 2021

About the author

I was born in Surrey, England. My father brought home a BBC Micro, and I've been writing games ever since - first in BBC BASIC, then Pascal, C, C++ and a host of other languages. I've been releasing games and articles since the early 1990s. I also do consulting work and help maintain a Wireless Internet Service Provider in Missouri, USA.

After releasing The Rust Roguelike Tutorial, I started working with Pragmatic Publisher to release Hands-On Rust. It's currently in beta (the beta gets you updated ebooks as they are released, and you can go to devtalk to submit errata), with a final release expected in 2021.

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've found it a bit uninspired. When compared to previous "Brain Teasers" series books, I didn't find here many gotchas, surprises "under the hood", or new tricks that will enrich my play deck in the future. It doesn't mean that book ain't useful or that the author was lazy (actually - the writing style is very solid, and everything is well-documented and clear). So, maybe the issue is that Rust is so logical and rationally designed that there's not so much space for Brain Teasers? Hmm, I don't think it's the case TBH. The mind-bending concepts of lifecycles & borrowing make forcing the code to compile a non-trivial challenge for non-experts (like myself) :) That's why I think there's still an unfulfilled potential - this book could have been much better IMHO, but the author has chosen the newbie-friendliness over ruthless brain-slaughter of the innocent :D

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick and interesting read. It also contains links to external resources for additional details.
I've learned a few things about Rust in the process.