The premier annual conference for Rust developers, RustConf, was held virtually online in August 2020. The full-day conference featured Rust developers and community members around the world. The talks ranged from the highly technical to beginner’s introduction to games and child-friendly activities. The key message is clear — Rust is ready for mainstream adoption.

Rust is one of the fastest-growing programming languages. In 2020 Rust broke into TIOBE’s top 20 most popular programming languages. A key reason for Rust’s growth is the passionate community around it. According to StackOverflow, Rust is the most beloved programming language in each of the past five years.

However, Rust also has a reputation as a difficult language to learn and get started. While other languages such as Python and JavaScript hide complexities such as memory management, Rust emphasizes creating correct and efficient code from the get-go. As a result, Rust is beloved by systems programmers who are from the C/C++ land, but has a sharp learning curve for application developers. As Rust grows into a mainstream programming language, it needs to be inclusive with regard to developers of all backgrounds and skill levels. Inclusivity is the theme of this year’s RustConf.

One of the most powerful tools in Rust is the compiler. For beginners and experts alike, the Rust compiler acts like a pair programmer or even a personal tutor. When it encounters an error in the source code, it not only tells where it is but also shows why it is wrong and suggests ways to fix it. Watch Esteban Kuber’s talk, “Bending the Curve: A Personal Tutor at Your Fingertips”, to learn more about how the Rust compiler can help. This talk is highly recommended to new Rust developers.

To expand on the idea of useful and educational compiler error messages, Jane Lusby’s talk titled, “Error Handling Isn’t All About Errors”, discussed novel efforts in Rust to improve runtime error reporting. New tools and libraries can now separate the orthogonal concerns of the root cause/stack trace of the error and presentation of the error message. They also provide more elegant ways to handle and recover from errors in Rust applications.

#web development #rust #development #news