Introduction to Rust for JavaScript Developers

Rust for JavaScript Developers

Rust offers memory safety and performance. Here's how to get started coming from JavaScript.

Setting Up Rust

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Create a new project
cargo new my_project
cd my_project

Variables and Types

// JavaScript
let name = "Alice";
let age = 30;

// Rust - immutable by default
let name = "Alice";        // &str
let age: i32 = 30;         // explicit type
let mut count = 0;         // mutable

Ownership - The Key Concept

fn main() {
    let s1 = String::from("hello");
    let s2 = s1;  // s1 is moved, no longer valid

    // This would error:
    // println!("{}", s1);

    // Use clone for copies
    let s3 = s2.clone();
}

Error Handling

use std::fs;

fn read_file(path: &str) -> Result {
    fs::read_to_string(path)
}

fn main() {
    match read_file("config.txt") {
        Ok(content) => println!("{}", content),
        Err(e) => eprintln!("Error: {}", e),
    }

    // Or use ? operator
    let content = read_file("config.txt")?;
}

Structs and Implementations

struct User {
    name: String,
    age: u32,
}

impl User {
    fn new(name: &str, age: u32) -> Self {
        User {
            name: name.to_string(),
            age,
        }
    }

    fn greet(&self) {
        println!("Hello, {}!", self.name);
    }
}

Rust's learning curve is steep but rewards you with fast, safe code.