mirror of https://github.com/rust-lang/book
42 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
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# Foreword
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It wasn’t always so clear, but the Rust programming language is fundamentally
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about *empowerment*: no matter what kind of code you are writing now, Rust
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empowers you to reach farther, to program with confidence in a wider variety of
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domains than you did before.
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Take, for example, “systems-level” work that deals with low-level details of
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memory management, data representation, and concurrency. Traditionally, this
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realm of programming is seen as arcane, accessible only to a select few who
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have devoted the necessary years learning to avoid its infamous pitfalls. And
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even those who practice it do so with caution, lest their code be open to
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exploits, crashes, or corruption.
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Rust breaks down these barriers by eliminating the old pitfalls and providing a
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friendly, polished set of tools to help you along the way. Programmers who need
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to “dip down” into lower-level control can do so with Rust, without taking on
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the customary risk of crashes or security holes, and without having to learn
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the fine points of a fickle toolchain. Better yet, the language is designed to
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guide you naturally towards reliable code that is efficient in terms of speed
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and memory usage.
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Programmers who are already working with low-level code can use Rust to raise
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their ambitions. For example, introducing parallelism in Rust is a relatively
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low-risk operation: the compiler will catch the classical mistakes for you. And
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you can tackle more aggressive optimizations in your code with the confidence
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that you won’t accidentally introduce crashes or vulnerabilities.
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But Rust isn’t limited to low-level systems programming. It’s expressive and
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ergonomic enough to make CLI apps, web servers, and many other kinds of code
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quite pleasant to write — you’ll find simple examples of both later in the
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book. Working with Rust allows you to build skills that transfer from one
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domain to another; you can learn Rust by writing a web app, then apply those
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same skills to target your Raspberry Pi.
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This book fully embraces the potential of Rust to empower its users. It’s a
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friendly and approachable text intended to help you level up not just your
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knowledge of Rust, but also your reach and confidence as a programmer in
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general. So dive in, get ready to learn—and welcome to the Rust community!
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— Nicholas Matsakis and Aaron Turon
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