Getting Started with Rust: Exploring an Alternative to JavaScript published 9/15/2023 | 2 min read

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With the continuous evolution of programming languages, Rust has emerged as an attractive alternative to JavaScript, offering superior performance, memory safety, and concurrency. This guide will walk you through getting started with Rust, including installation, basic syntax, and practical examples.

What is Rust?

Rust is a systems programming language geared toward achieving three objectives: safety, speed, and concurrency. It's designed to prevent segmentation faults, and guarantees thread safety.

  
fn main() {
    println!("Hello, world!"); // prints "Hello, world!" to the console
}


Installing Rust

Use the rustup toolchain, the recommended way to install the Rust programming language. Rustup is the primary distribution of Rust, and manages toolchains for you so you can quickly switch between stable, beta, and nightly compilers.

  
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Memory Safety Without a Garbage Collector

Unlike JavaScript, Rust doesn’t use a garbage collector, freeing up valuable CPU cycles. Instead, it enforces strict borrowing and lifetime rules to ensure memory safety.

  
fn take(v: Vec<i32>) {
    // do something with v
} // <-- v goes out of scope and is freed

let v = vec![1, 2, 3];
take(v);


Concurrency in Rust

Rust ensures a higher level of threads safety by using the ownership model which guarantees safe concurrency.

  
let mut data = vec![1, 2, 3];

for item in data.iter_mut() {
    *item *= 3;
}
println!("{:?}", data);  // prints "[3, 6, 9]"

You don’t need to venture out of JavaScript’s comfort zone to achieve high-performance, reliable, and efficient web applications. With Rust, the possibilities are endless. So why not take the leap today and explore the exciting world of Rust?



In the subsequent posts, we will dive deeper into the Rust ecosystem and how you can leverage it in your projects. Essential topics include the cargo package manager, understanding the trait system, and error handling in Rust.

Remember: it's not about completely replacing JavaScript but considering alternatives as the web continues to evolve. Stay tuned for more on Rust!



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