The Beloved Crab

I had seen an error message before. I mean, I had been coding for well over 2 years, but what I saw that day was no error message. It was a guide, a tutorial, a lifeline.

Take this example below gotten from “the rust book”(Probably one of the best documentation in existence). With just the basic knowledge of the programming language, it is quite easy to figure out what the problem is from the message. I mean, I’m not pointing fingers, but I’ve seen JavaScript's error messages.

The Rust compiler error message was something I had never encountered before. It reminded me of the Youtuber, Mosh’s explanations. I write a lot of JavaScript, so I learnt a lot from him. The Rust error messages were comparable to Mosh fleshing out a JavaScript error message. No wonder Rust has topped the stack overflow survey for most loved language almost six years in a row.

A bit of a backstory. I found a Stack Overflow survey on the most loved programming languages, and Rust topped the list. I did a bit more digging and got an understanding of why Rust is loved. No programming language that user-friendly should have that much power. At that point, my interest in Rust and its associated technology had almost consumed me. The finishing blow was when I saw the average salary of a rust developer, and well, here we are, I’m telling my Rust story.

I’ve been actively learning Rust for about two months now, a combination of books, videos, and help from the Rust community. Rust developers are easy to spot on Twitter, just watch out for crabs - the red emoji with two pincers raised, and a species of users called Rustaceans. Example:

They are everywhere and are the most accommodating set of people you’d ever meet. Also, I find that they - and when I say “they”, I mean, “we”, at this point - always have something to say about Rust. The community is really passionate. I’d say I feel really passionate about Rust too. I mean, I spend about 12 hours a day actively learning. I intend to become a Rust beast. I’d probably soon go on a break from writing other languages to immerse myself fully in learning Rust.

I see C/C++ people(developers) as wizards, making magic with complicated spells. A forbidden terrain for the simple. But with Rust, I have the power to create magic with simple things (simple compared to C, and when fully understood at least). Simple(semi simple) syntax, simple error messages, and guides like memory safety features, safe concurrency, and memory management, that protect you from the complications that could arise when building applications with C. The thrill of learning something new is still very much with me.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I bet there’s a red crab in it.

This story is based on Ademola Tomiwa's experience with Rust.