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+++
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title = "Rust In Action - T.S. McNamara"
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date = 2020-04-28
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[taxonomies]
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tags = ["books", "reviews", "rust", "t s mcnamara", "4 stars"]
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+++
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[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45731908-rust-in-action):
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Rust in Action introduces the Rust programming language by exploring numerous
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systems programming concepts and techniques. You'll be learning Rust by delving
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into how computers work under the hood. You'll find yourself playing with
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persistent storage, memory, networking and even tinkering with CPU
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instructions. The book takes you through using Rust to extend other
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applications and teaches you tricks to write blindingly fast code. You'll also
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discover parallel and concurrent programming. Filled to the brim with
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real-life use-cases and scenarios, you'll go beyond the Rust syntax and see
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what Rust has to offer in real-world use cases.
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<!-- more -->
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{{ stars(stars=4) }}
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{% note() %}
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The version of this book I got is not the final version, it's part of
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Manning Early Access Program, which allows people to read and participate in
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"constructing" a book. A lot of things may change in the final version, so be
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aware of this.
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{% end %}
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I have to say, I don't buy the "introduces the Rust programming language" part
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of the description. A few points seem related to people that already have some
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knowledge about the language, and jumping straight to some non-trivial problem
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appears to skip a few "introduction" points, in my opinion.
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One have to ask what "in Action" means. Sure, you'll write your one RFC
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754 for dealing with floating points, so you can understand why some floating
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values get to 6.000000000001, and while you won't ever write your own floating
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point processor, you have to ask yourself: What is being explained about Rust
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here? Sometimes, the problems feel more like "I want to solve this" than "I
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want to explain this feature of the language", while it should be the other
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way around.
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Another confusing point: The output of a program appears before its code.
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While not that weird, you end up with some sections showing the output,
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explaining a bit and then, way later, you get the code what actually produces
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that output. I remember reading a bit about the output and some discussion
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about it and I got really confused about what was producing that output.
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The Rust part seems a bit out-of-date, too. There are some `extern crate`,
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which is optional at this point. Updating the code to reflect the latest
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version of the language (the syntax, that is) would be better.
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On the other hand, I have to give the author the props for managing to explain
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things _really well_. Why you should use something, how can you apply
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different things to the same data and so on. That's the book greatest
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strength.
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So, is it a bad book? Not at all. It has some quirks, but overall is well
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explained and, if you keep an eye on the language from outside, it answers a
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lot of stuff that you won't figure out anywhere else.
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