You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
62 lines
2.9 KiB
62 lines
2.9 KiB
4 years ago
|
+++
|
||
|
|
title = "Rust In Action - T.S. McNamara"
|
||
|
|
date = 2020-04-28
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
[taxonomies]
|
||
|
|
tags = ["books", "reviews", "rust", "t s mcnamara"]
|
||
|
|
+++
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45731908-rust-in-action):
|
||
|
|
Rust in Action introduces the Rust programming language by exploring numerous
|
||
|
|
systems programming concepts and techniques. You'll be learning Rust by delving
|
||
|
|
into how computers work under the hood. You'll find yourself playing with
|
||
|
|
persistent storage, memory, networking and even tinkering with CPU
|
||
|
|
instructions. The book takes you through using Rust to extend other
|
||
|
|
applications and teaches you tricks to write blindingly fast code. You'll also
|
||
|
|
discover parallel and concurrent programming. Filled to the brim with
|
||
|
|
real-life use-cases and scenarios, you'll go beyond the Rust syntax and see
|
||
|
|
what Rust has to offer in real-world use cases.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- more -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
{{ stars(stars=4) }}
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
{% note() %}
|
||
|
|
The version of this book I got is not the final version, it's part of
|
||
|
|
Manning Early Access Program, which allows people to read and participate in
|
||
|
|
"constructing" a book. A lot of things may change in the final version, so be
|
||
|
|
aware of this.
|
||
|
|
{% end %}
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I have to say, I don't buy the "introduces the Rust programming language" part
|
||
|
|
of the description. A few points seem related to people that already have some
|
||
|
|
knowledge about the language, and jumping straight to some non-trivial problem
|
||
|
|
appears to skip a few "introduction" points, in my opinion.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
One have to ask what "in Action" means. Sure, you'll write your one RFC
|
||
|
|
754 for dealing with floating points, so you can understand why some floating
|
||
|
|
values get to 6.000000000001, and while you won't ever write your own floating
|
||
|
|
point processor, you have to ask yourself: What is being explained about Rust
|
||
|
|
here? Sometimes, the problems feel more like "I want to solve this" than "I
|
||
|
|
want to explain this feature of the language", while it should be the other
|
||
|
|
way around.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Another confusing point: The output of a program appears before its code.
|
||
|
|
While not that weird, you end up with some sections showing the output,
|
||
|
|
explaining a bit and then, way later, you get the code what actually produces
|
||
|
|
that output. I remember reading a bit about the output and some discussion
|
||
|
|
about it and I got really confused about what was producing that output.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The Rust part seems a bit out-of-date, too. There are some `extern crate`,
|
||
|
|
which is optional at this point. Updating the code to reflect the latest
|
||
|
|
version of the language (the syntax, that is) would be better.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
On the other hand, I have to give the author the props for managing to explain
|
||
|
|
things _really well_. Why you should use something, how can you apply
|
||
|
|
different things to the same data and so on. That's the book greatest
|
||
|
|
strength.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
So, is it a bad book? Not at all. It has some quirks, but overall is well
|
||
|
|
explained and, if you keep an eye on the language from outside, it answers a
|
||
|
|
lot of stuff that you won't figure out anywhere else.
|