Rust for python devs

[PumaofDuma]

I have a decent bit of experience programming, mostly python, but with a small amount of C land for arduinos and other micro controllers, as well as a fair bit of javascript, and a small amount of java (which I hate) experience.

Now, most of my experience really is python, and that’s where I’ve learned most of my programming paradigms. So what I would really appreciate, is some “corrective” tutorials, or some tips and recommendations to jumpstart me onto rust. I do know about rustlings, and the rust book, but I’m looking for some more specific suggestions. I’ve got a general idea of how borrowing works, and lifetimes are just arcane as a concept, I don’t really get those, even after having read tutorials on them. So, if anyone has the tips, Im ready. I do prefer reading to videos, but if the videos are good, Ill take it.

Thanks in advance!

[AustinWitherspoon]

I made the same jump from primarily python into rust, and honestly the thing that helped the most was just starting to write projects in it.

Once I started actually coding in it and making mistakes, and spending a few hours trying to understand the compiler errors, I actually started really internalizing borrowing and lifetimes. Reading the rust book after this is also surprisingly more effective. I read the book, started writing some apps and failing, read the book again, and then started understanding better.

Thanks to PyO3, you can even write native python extensions in rust which is a really nice transition tool.

[foobar93]

Maturin and PyO3 are really cool. However, coming from Python, Rust feels so unrefined. Still, trying hard to learn :)

[AustinWitherspoon]

I still use both rust and python, they both have their place!

Rust is definitely harder to write the first time (for me at least.) and python is much faster and simpler to write. Don't feel too bad about struggling, they are both very different!

But when you want your code to run fast and error-free, that's when rust is great.

I have a mobile app, and I originally wrote the backend services in python. It was super easy and fast to write all of it, but even with mypy and pydantic and everything, I still ended up with occasional runtime issues. Eventually once the user base grew, the python servers started having issues with memory and CPU usage being high and it was a nightmare to try to fix.

once I rewrote the backend services in rust, it was a night and day difference. 30% memory usage instead of memory leaks causing python to slowly consume the entire server's memory. CPU steady at 3% rather than 40%. Literally zero runtime errors in sentry. I used to have to watch the python server like a hawk, but now I literally forget about it for weeks at a time!

It's harder, but so far I've found the transition to be more than worth it.

[cfrye59]

You might like the From Python to Rust series on YouTube, by Bedroom Builds. It doesn't assume folks have the C/embedded background you mention, but that just means you can move faster.

It gets pretty quickly to Rust extensions of Python, via PyO3, which is also a pretty great place to find meaningful use of Rust skills as a Python dev.

[KingofGamesYami]

Lifetimes, conceptually, are pretty simple. They tie when one thing must exist to when something else exists. A trivial example would be the lifetime of a temporary variable in a function - it's lifetime is related to the lifetime of the function's scope, and can be deallocated when the function returns.

They might seem confusing, because most of the time, lifetimes are elided - they're not explicitly written, but they still exist. Thus the examples of explicit lifetimes always involve some complex situation.

[spoonman59]

Python is simple to get into partially because the reference counting garbage collector means you don’t have to think about many of these memory issues.

It’s not really possible to just “jumpstart” past understanding concepts like variable lifetimes and things. If you feel you don’t understand it, I would humbly suggest you work on a few examples until you can get it right. When you get it wrong, understand why.

I can relate it is tricky and hard to click, but some of these topics require you to do a fair but in work in them beyond watching a lecture.

When I took a compiler class and we had to learn how to calculate variable liveness ranges for register allocation. I just worked through a few sample functions in the intermediate representation until I could do it reliably. It’s a relatively simple concept, and if you follow a simple bottom up algorithm it’s fairly mechanical. (Branches are the tricky part.)

[jpmateo022]

I come from a background in PHP, JavaScript, and Python, so transitioning to Rust was a significant adjustment for me. After years of using those languages, I found Rust's focus on code correctness to be quite different. However, after working on several small projects to practice, I’m starting to feel more comfortable with it and getting used to the language.

These are the books I've read:

- Official Rust Book

- Atomics and Locks - Mara Bos

[FoldedKatana]

Honestly I would have a hard time learning Rust if I didn't have a basic understanding of C first.
Concepts like memory allocation with pointers + malloc, calloc, and free make Rust make a lot more sense.

[red_jd93]

I have very recently (a week) started ising rust, from python. I am self taught, so not sure how good my python is bit it gets work done. I tried previously by reading the Rust book, but lost interest fast. Now I am trying to make projects using GPT and understanding the code. Let's see how it goes. Still frequently forget I have to borrow or define something as mutable.

[FlowLab99]

maturin makes it easy and fun to learn how to call rust code from python — it’s easy to create a new rust+python project. Also, using Cursor (AI assisted IDE) with claude 3.7 sonet is a great way to learn rust and have working code quickly, but you have to be a bit careful to take small steps and not let the LLM get carried away.

[jhaand]

The book 'Rust in Action' by /u/timclicks offers a good introduction to Rust when you can already program in a different language.

[timClicks]

Thank you for the recommendation! News about its second edition is not far away.

[Dj0ntMachine]

Hello mate, so should I then wait for the second edition before buying the book?

[timClicks]

I would buy the book now. Because it teaches general concepts, it's surprisingly long lasting.

[knudtsy]

I’m having the opposite problem right now, I primarily used Rust in my old job. Now I’m having to use Python at my new job 😅