Rust for Rustaceans: Idiomatic Programming for Experienced Developers

Author: Jon Gjengset Year: 2021 Genre: Software Architecture

About This Book

Master professional-level coding in Rust. For developers who’ve mastered the basics, this book is the next step on your way to professional-level programming in Rust. It covers everything you need to build and maintain larger code bases, write powerful and flexible applications and libraries, and confidently expand the scope and complexity of your projects.

Author Jon Gjengset takes you deep into the Rust programming language, dissecting core topics like ownership, traits, concurrency, and unsafe code. You’ll explore key concepts like type layout and trait coherence, delve into the inner workings of concurrent programming and asynchrony with async/await, and take a tour of the world of no_std programming.

Key Insights

• Ownership as design tool: Use lifetimes and borrowing to express intent, prevent bugs, and optimise.
• Traits shape APIs: Object safety, coherence, and generics drive extensibility and ergonomics.
• Fearless concurrency with care: Understand Send/Sync, Pin/Waker, and async executors to avoid foot‑guns.
• Unsafe is a contract: Minimise unsafe blocks and encapsulate invariants with safe abstractions.
• Macros judiciously: Use declarative/procedural macros to reduce boilerplate without hiding complexity.
• FFI and no_std: Interop and constrained environments expand Rust’s reach when done carefully.

Why I Recommend It

If you’ve finished “The Book” and want to write idiomatic, production‑grade Rust, this is the bridge. Gjengset explains the why behind patterns so you can design safe, ergonomic APIs and avoid common pitfalls.

You’ll level up across ownership, traits, async, and unsafe—with guidance you can apply immediately to real projects.

Key Highlights

• Professional Focus: Designed for developers ready to tackle real-world Rust projects
• Comprehensive Coverage: From advanced language features to ecosystem integration
• Practical Examples: Real-world applications and best practices throughout
• Expert Guidance: Written by a recognised Rust community expert
• Future-Proof: Covers concepts unlikely to go out of date

Who Should Read This

• Developers who have completed “The Rust Programming Language” book
• Programmers looking to transition from basic to professional Rust development
• Software architects designing systems in Rust
• Anyone interested in understanding Rust’s advanced features and patterns

“This isthebook for intermediate rust. Jon Gjengset is a fantastic educator, best known for his ‘Crust of Rust’ series on YouTube.” - Amazon Review (4.7/5 stars, 387 ratings)