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Learn Rust in a Month of Lunches

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One month. One hour a day. That’s all it takes to start writing Rust code!

Learn Rust in a Month of Lunches teaches you to write super fast and super safe Rust code through lessons you can fit in your lunch break. Crystal-clear explanations and focused, relevant examples make it accessible to anyone—even if you’re learning Rust as your first programming language.

By the time you’re done reading Learn Rust in a Month of Lunches you’ll be able

Build real software in Rust Understand messages from the compiler and Clippy, Rust’s coding coach Make informed decisions on the right types to use in any context Make sense of the Rust standard library and its commonly used items Use external Rust “crates” (libraries) for common tasks Comment and build documentation for your Rust code Work with crates that use async Rust Write simple declarative macros Explore test driven development in Rust
Learn Rust in a Month of Lunches is full of 24 easy-to-digest lessons that ease you into real Rust programming. You’ll learn essential Rust skills you can use for everything from system programming, to web applications, and games. By the time you’re done learning, you’ll know exactly what makes Rust unique—and be one of the thousands of developers who say it’s their best loved language!

About the technology

Learn how to create fast powerful programs in Rust in just 24 short lessons! Rust gives you modern features like a top-notch compiler, a rich ecosystem of pre-built libraries, and the same low-level performance you get with a language like C, but without the awkward syntax, complex memory management, and code safety concerns. This book guides you step by step from your first line of code.

About the book

Learn Rust in a Month of Lunches breaks down the Rust language into concise hands-on lessons designed to be completed in an hour or less. The examples are fun and easy to follow, so you’ll quickly progress from zero Rust knowledge to handling async and writing your own macros. You won’t even need to install Rust—the book’s code samples run in the browser-based Rust Playground. There’s no easier way to get started!

What's inside

Build working Rust software Understand messages from the compiler and Clippy Use external Rust “crates” (libraries) for common tasks Explore test driven development in Rust

About the reader

No previous experience with Rust required.

About the author

Dave MacLeod was an educator, Korean-English translator, project controller, and copywriter before becoming a full-time Rust developer. The technical editor on this book was Jerry Kuch.

Table of Contents
1 Some basics
2 Memory, variables, and ownership
3 More complex types
4 Building your own types
5 Generics, option, and result
6 More collections, more error handling
7 Making different types do the same thing
8 Iterators and closures

1116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 30, 2024

17 people are currently reading
41 people want to read

About the author

David MacLeod

18 books1 follower

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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
2 reviews
April 14, 2024
I was one of the book reviewers, and didn't have much knowledge of Rust to begin with, other than a few half-hearted attempts to poke at the language to see what it was all about. I found that, after reviewing the book, that I have a much better understanding of Rust, which comes from sitting down and trying out all of the language features. Like most books that teach a computer language to newbies, it starts with a good description of types, which in itself shows the power of Rust. From there, you quickly learn some quite advanced features that are built into the language, which are more natural with Rust than other languages.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming an expert Rust programmer.
Profile Image for Orkun  Kaan Şimşek.
6 reviews
April 25, 2024
A nice primer on Rust.

As someone who has started programming with C, I really appreciate what Rust offers. If you want to try Rust or brush up on your knowledge about the language, this is the book to read. I can especially recommend it to people who want to learn programming with Rust as their first language. MacLeod has a nice way of explaining things and his Youtube channel also helps a lot with the learning.
Profile Image for Marcello.
297 reviews10 followers
April 1, 2024
From zero to Rust in a few weeks. I had a chance to read this book exactly when I needed to learn Rust as fast as I could. It helped me get started and become proficient with the language in an extremely short time.
The pace of the book is kind of relaxed - easy I'd say - but it teaches you all you need to learn to build your first Rust project or to join a project coded in Rust.
1 review
April 27, 2024
The book contains a lot of information about the language. Either you are curious about the new concepts of the language and it will help you discover what makes Rust a different language from other languages like C/C++/Java and friends... If you want to learn Rust with the idea of using it some day, read the book first and use it as a language reference. Have a good read.
Profile Image for Mochammad Hadyan.
123 reviews4 followers
June 16, 2024
What a book! I should nominate this one as the best unofficial book to learn Rust.

I like how the author explaining hard concepts in Rust by using layman terminology or analogy that is easy to understand.

The topics coverage also comprehensive that you can't miss the fundamental.

Must read for seasonal and aspiring Rust developer.
30 reviews
December 25, 2023
I learned Golang from Todd McLeod, and now, I can say I learned Rust properly from David MacLeod.


The book expanded my interest in Rust. Despite having learned Rust a year prior, it exposed me to more things than I would've known. The explanation to memory management in Rust is more clear here.
4 reviews
March 26, 2024
This book has helped me a lot while I have been learning Rust. The author's descriptions and code examples have been instrumental in penetrating my thick skull and making many key points and how-to techniques stick.
Profile Image for Abhilash.
102 reviews3 followers
September 16, 2024
The writing style is clear and engaging. Experienced programmers can start writing meaningful Rust programs quickly. It's an ideal resource for developers seeking to add Rust to their toolkit efficiently and effectively.
Profile Image for Jörn Dinkla.
Author 1 book2 followers
October 19, 2024
I like this book as in introduction to Rust. This book is very well-structured didactically. You learn the essential language elements of Rust incrementally at the right pace. I just didn’t find the end with the practical examples as well done.
Profile Image for Giuseppe Catalano.
5 reviews
April 10, 2024
An excellent book for learning Rust language, explains the language in great detail without overly complex technical terms. A useful resource for all Rust developers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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