Hi all,
I started learning rust a few months ago on my free time. I went through the most difficult already like borrow checker and I used the Learning Rust book from Jim Blandy as reference especially for its first chapters.
This is not my first time learning a language I already have experience with Python, Go, JS, C, Lua … but with Rust it feels different.
Everytime I learned a new lang there was always a milestone I crossed that made me feel comfortable using the language, that milestone was always some side project or program I needed anyway.
I am trying to do the same with Rust but the slowness of learning and looking up the docs coupled with the verbosity of the language is not very motivating. Don’t get me wrong, I really want to use Rust and learn it as it looks very elegant and clean, I already learned a lot more about lower level details of programming. The documentation is probably the most elaborate one I ever used for a programming language.
To keep me going I am practicing Rustlings while a procrastinate to work on the side project I chose as first project.
I am just curious how others passed that milestone with Rust.
I think the best way to learn any programming language, is to think of a project you’re enthusiastic about, and try to build it using that language. Then only refer to resources like docs and guides, when you don’t know how to do a thing.
This gives you the drive to finish something you’re excited about, and avoids the monotony of reading through documentation, a lot of which you won’t use.
In real-language-learning, they call this the map / territory distinction. You could spend all day looking at an overhead map of a place, but you won’t really know it until you actually go to that place and experience it.
In learning a musical instrument, its called the suzuki method: spend 99% of your time playing your instrument, and less time memorizing other things.
That’s usually how I tend to learn new things as well. It’s just that progress feels so much slower with Rust at my current level. I could build the same thing with python or go in a fraction of that time and I need to justify to myself the extra time is for learning purposes.
I started working recently on a big TUI project which I would love to do Rust but unfortunately most of the ecosystem is in Python (AI). I am using Textual and it’s such a breeze to make a TUI with it nothing comes close in Rust. What I achieved in a few weeks would take me months in rust.
Also it’s that I have spent much more time reading than coding in retrospective to the previous languages I learned. I need more discipline just coding.
Thanks for the advice.