Why Rust?

Rust is the new kid on the block. It's a system programming language that is blazingly fast and offers powerful high-level abstractions better known from dynamic languages like Ruby or Python. Rust offers memory safety without a Garbage Collector and makes low-level programming easier and more secure. I will give an introductory talk about Rust and show some of its nicest features.

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Slides for the presentation I gave about Rust at cod{e}motion Amsterdam 2016

Transcript

1. Why Rust?
   

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2. - Düsseldorf, Germany
   - Backend Engineer at trivago
   - Website performance team
   - Worked a lot with Python and PHP
   - Likes hot chocolate
   @matthiasendler
   Matthias Endler
   

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3. Rust
   - Created by Graydon Hoare
   - Funded by Mozilla
   - Primary goal: A safer systems language
   - First version: 2010
   - Current stable version 1.8
   

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4. System Programming
   Memory management
   Error handling
   Static Typing
   Compiling
   …
   

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5. System Programming
   is challenging!
   

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6. • Provide the right abstractions
   • Provide awesome tools
   • Allow making mistakes
   • Build a helpful community
   System Programming
   can be fun!
   

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7. RUST: High level on bare metal
   

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8. Where Rust makes sense
   Everywhere you want speed and safety
   • Operating Systems
   • Compilers
   • Emulators

   Encryption
   • Databases

   Numerics
   • Graphics Programming
   • Data Pipelines

   Finance
   • …
   

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9. struct Person {
   first_name: String,
   last_name: String,
   age: i32
   }
   impl Person {
   pub fn new(first_name: String, last_name: String, age: i32) -> Person {
   Person {
   first_name: first_name,
   last_name: last_name,
   age: age
   }
   }
   }
   fn main() {
   let mut vec = Vec::new();
   vec.push(Person::new(String::from("Austin"), String::from("Powers"), 13));
   vec.push(Person::new(String::from("Dr."), String::from("Evil"), 30));
   for person in &vec {
   let result = match person.age {
   0...18 => "Teenager",
   18 => "Old enough to go to war",
   _ => "Too Old"
   };
   }
   }
   RUST
   

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10. Type safety
    Type
    expression
    Type
    checking
    Garbage
    Collector
    C unsafe explicit static No
    C++ unsafe explicit static No
    Go safe implicit/explicit static Yes
    Rust safe implicit/explicit static/dynamic optional
    

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11. #include
    #include
    #include
    int main() {
    std::vector v;
    v.push_back("foo");
    auto const &x = v[0];
    v.push_back("bar");
    // Undefined behavior!
    std::cout << x;
    }
    C++
    

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12. fn main() {
    let mut v = Vec::new();
    v.push("foo");
    let mut x = &mut v[0];
    v.push("bar");
    println!("{}", x)
    }
    RUST
    

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13. fn f(x: Type) {...}
    fn f(x: &Type) {...}
    fn f(x: &mut Type) {...}
    Mutable borrow
    Ownership
    • Share as you like
    • read-only
    • one at a time
    • read/write
    Immutable borrow
    • Total control
    • read-write
    

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14. What I like about…
    • PHP: Package manager, Community
    • Python: Syntax, Libraries
    • Golang: Tooling, Documentation, Concurrency
    • C: Speed, no overhead
    

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15. What I like about…
    • PHP: Package manager, Community
    • Python: Syntax, Libraries
    • Golang: Tooling, Documentation, Concurrency
    • C: Speed, no overhead
    RUST
    

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16. What sucks about…
    • PHP: Syntax (a bit), legacy functions
    • Python: Package manager, 2 vs 3
    • Golang: Error handling, package
    manager, no generics, Syntax (a bit)
    • C: Missing package manager, safety
    

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17. What sucks about
    Rust
    • Syntax (a bit)
    • „Fighting with the Borrow checker“
    • Missing packages (you can help!)
    • probably more…
    

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18. Complexity vs Speed
    • PHP
    • Python
    • Golang
    • Rust
    • C
    Faster „Easier“
    

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19. IDEs?
    

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20. Visual Studio
    

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21. Visual Studio Code using Rusty Code plugin
    

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22. Atom with language-rust plugin
    

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23. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager
    Syntax highlighting
    Formatting
    Code completion
    Debugging
    Code linter
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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24. https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/testing.html
    Unit testing
    

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25. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting
    Formatting
    Code completion
    Debugging
    Code linter
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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26. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting
    Code completion
    Debugging
    Code linter
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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27. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion
    Debugging
    Code linter
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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28. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging
    Code linter
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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29. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging: rust gdb?
    Code linter
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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30. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging: rust gdb?
    Code linter: clippy
    Benchmarking
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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31. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging: rust gdb?
    Code linter: clippy
    Benchmarking: builtin
    Profiling
    Code coverage
    

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32. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging: rust gdb?
    Code linter: clippy
    Benchmarking: builtin
    Profiling: meh…
    Code coverage
    

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33. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging: rust gdb?
    Code linter: clippy
    Benchmarking: builtin
    Profiling: meh… torch?
    Code coverage
    

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34. https://llogiq.github.io/2015/07/15/profiling.html
    Calls
    Time
    

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35. My tool wishlist
    Unit testing: builtin
    Package manager: cargo
    Syntax highlighting: atom-language-rust
    Formatting: rustfmt
    Code completion: racer
    Debugging: rust gdb?
    Code linter: clippy
    Benchmarking: builtin
    Profiling: meh… torch?
    Code coverage: kcov?
    

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36. kcov …is a code coverage tester for
    compiled programs, Python
    scripts and shell scripts
    language: rust
    matrix:
    fast_finish: true
    include:
    - rust: nightly
    env: FEATURES="--features nightly"
    sudo: false
    - rust: nightly
    env: FEATURES="--features nightly" BENCH=true
    sudo: false
    - rust: beta
    sudo: true
    after_success: |
    sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev libelf-dev libdw-dev &&
    wget https://github.com/SimonKagstrom/kcov/archive/master.tar.gz &&
    tar xzf master.tar.gz && mkdir kcov-master/build && cd kcov-master/build && cmake .. && make &&
    sudo make install && cd ../.. &&
    kcov --coveralls-id=$TRAVIS_JOB_ID --exclude-pattern=/.cargo target/kcov target/debug/hyper-*
    Put this into your .travis.yml:
    

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37. Summary
    Lots of work to do
    But impressive start
    

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38. We need to focus on those…
    • Debugging
    • Profiling
    • Code Coverage
    

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39. glium
    • High-level wrapper around OpenGL
    • Avoids all OpenGL errors
    diesel • A safe, extensible ORM and Query Builder
    • Operating System written in pure Rust,

    designed to be modular and secure
    Redox
    crossbeam • A collection of lock-less data structures
    turbine
    • A high-performance, non-locking, inter-task
    communication library written in Rust.
    • Go channels on steroids
    

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40. Bonus
    rr - a reverse debugger

    (http://rr-project.org/)
    Dash - Offline API Documentation browser for Mac
    (https://kapeli.com/dash)
    Crates.io reverse package lookup

    (https://crates.io/crates/serde/reverse_dependencies)
    

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41. www.meetup.com/Rust-Amsterdam
    

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42. Even more at
    https://gist.github.com/nrc/a3bbf6dd1b14ce57f18c
    http://kukuruku.co/hub/rust/comparing-rust-and-cpp
    

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