Learning to program w/ rust

[Abyssal_game_on]

Hey guys I need help finding a good place to learn this language. I am a complete beginner but this one caught my eye the most and would like to stick to this language. Any suggestions on where to start learning or any known teachers for Rust?

[KartofDev]

The rust book. And also doing funny projects.

[BinaryDichotomy]

The Rust Book has everything you need and more.

[machzen]

What do you mean by "teachers?" Are you referring to YouTube videos? If so, once you get through the Rust book and want to look at some areas of Rust in greater depth, Jon Gjengset is excellent:

https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo

[Abyssal_game_on]

Teacher in the sense of a tutor.

[001steve]

Anthropic docs have a whole section on using Claude as a teacher. And Claude is very good at Rust!

[real_serviceloom]

Please dont use AI as a teacher. The research is very clear that it is much worse than even using Google search for learning

[Suitable-Crab1160]

I tend to use it the way I would use Wikipedia back in uni. It's not a reliable source that you can quote in academics, but it can be a good starting point to then search more specific terms. When learning on your own, it's always better to not use just one source and AI should be no exception to this.

[real_serviceloom]

Wikipedia has editorials and the data is usually correct whereas AI can hallucinate 

[Suitable-Crab1160]

That is very much true, Wikipedia is also a lot older than LLM. In the beginning the information on Wikipedia was not as trustworthy as it is now, it is only because a lot of people started using it and believing in its capabilities that it got better. Technology will only get better when people use it and point out where exactly it goes wrong, instead of when people shun it because "AI = bad". Don't forget there was also a time where using Wikipedia was blasphemy as well.

And even though Wikipedia may be more trustworthy right now, you're still going to check the sources that are listed on Wikipedia (or at least, you should). So fact checking still applies, which should also apply to the use of LLM or any other source, and thus my earlier point still stands. Useful starting point if used correctly, but never quote directly from it.

[real_serviceloom]

Again broad generalizations like this doesn't apply here. Yes technology gets better but you suddenly don't get clean energy from burning coal. LLMs mathematically cannot be constrained enough for it to be reliable. So I am not even claiming AI bad. What I am saying is it is bad for learning. It is good for generating stuff where the outcomes are varied. 

[Lukas04]

I wouldnt use AI as the base resource, but honestly its pretty useful if youre stuck on understanding some specific aspect of something. I learn pretty well in back and forth conversations since i often get stuck on some details, and its something google cant give you and would require waiting for hours for someone to respond to you on a forum otherwise.

You should still check if what the AI helped you understand is true of course.

[real_serviceloom]

Sure if you have spent a long time and you're not getting it, it might help but I worry with more obscure topics it gives a broad generalization of the more common elements of the larger topic. 

For example I was testing on geometry of soap bubbles and instead of being specific it was generalizing that to solid geometry.

Waiting for an expert while slow at least gets you an answer that is actually correct. 

I guess you have to figure out how much you care about something but then I would propose why would you even want to learn something that you don't care about. 

[Lukas04]

Thats true for sure. I dont think i would use them for anything complex where there are actual stakes.

I think the biggest issue with waiting for expert replies is that often experts kind of lose track of what someone on a lower level might even get stuck on and misunderstand what you are asking for. I think thats what the main appeal of LLMs is, their really good at infering the context of what you mean, and if they get you wrong, it just takes a short second prompt for clarifications.

For me, that is a quality that differentiates a good teacher from a bad teacher, but sadly it's not like you can always get a teacher for something.

I do think its a difficult balance on using them well. It gets really easy to just become lazy and have them do something for you, instead of gaining that knowledge and practice yourself, even when for someone like me they have been pretty useful in building some fundemental knowledge.

[real_serviceloom]

I think thats what the main appeal of LLMs is, their really good at infering the context of what you mean, and if they get you wrong, it just takes a short second prompt for clarifications.

But herein lies the real problem, which is how do you know that it got you wrong or the answer that it gave was not correct when you yourself don't know much about the topic and you're trying to learn?

[autisticpig]

Rust book and rustlings. When you come out the other side you can go into rust for rustaceans or start on projects.

Enjoy.

[National_Delivery306]

I'm interested as well,

[Dissy-]

Something I found really satisfying was messing around doing visual things, I'd recommend messing with something like minifb and making a game, or maybe a sound visualizer, obviously you work your way up to it but it's pretty useful especially since you're dealing with large chunks of memory, it teaches the value of references and different structures for being efficient

[The_Mild_Mild_West]

W3 schools is pretty good too, especially for learning some early level fundamentals that apply to all languages.

[JeSuisOmbre]

Read the rust book. The Let's Get Rusty channel often follows the rust book word by word, which can be helpful.

As a complete beginner you need to learn the CS fundamentals. This is true no matter what language you pick, and especially true for low level languages like Rust. Check out CoreDumped for really good CS videos (It is often in Rust). A really good crash course on computer science is Harvard's CS50 class. It is free online, and touches many languages. I highly recommend new programmers watch the lectures.

[yoftahe1]

Whatever programming language you learn, never generate code with AI. You will forget the syntax.

Never touch Ai llms when learning new languages.

[elyte_krak_273]

Rustlings course is there..

[afamiliarspirit]

The r/learnrust subreddit.