Hacker News Reader

Comment by microtonal | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting that Programming Rust 2nd Edition is under Advanced Books. IMO it is the best introductory Rust book, though it does require some background in another programming language.

I am currently 2/3rds through Rust for Rustaceans. Since I picked up Rust around 1.0, there wasn't much new, but I did pick up a few interesting things along the way.

View on HN

Yeah I came here to say the same thing. I wasn't sure what OP meant by advanced here. If they meant that the target audience is advanced programmers, I could see this making sense since the book definitely assumes decent familiarity with programming in general, but it didn't seem like the book teaches you advanced Rust, at least not as far as I can tell.

Agree that "Programming Rust" is a good book. It is thorough and provides good explanation about many trickier aspects of the language. However my biggest peeve about the book is lack of good complete working examples and exercises. I worked through the book and learnt much about Rust, but midway into the book I wasn't sure how good I am in writing code in Rust to solve a programming problem. IMO a side project, or some rust exercises that cover the topic one is reading in the book is a good way to work through this book.

I agree; I like the book, but the lack of exercises is a bit of a missed opportunity, I think. At times, it just feels like you’re reading a reference manual.

> it just feels like you’re reading a reference manual.

From other threads here and on r/rust, this seems to be a common opinion. I've seen multiple recommendations to pair it with another, more exercise- or project-oriented book.

I agree about the Blandy, et al., Programming Rust 2e being a great Rust book for people who already have experience with systems programming.

Many times, a question would form in my head (like "But then how does it address X?"), and would be answered within the next few sentences.

> though it does require some background in another programming language.

Would that still qualify it as an introductory starter book though?

I would not reccomend rust as a starter language! It's far too complicated. Even I as an experienced engineer needed a week to wrap my head around it and solve toy problems. A total begginer would give up long before they got productive. Rust is a great second or third language.

Begginers should stick to python or JavaScript

Reply on news.ycombinator.com