Learn Rust

A collection of Rust learning projects demonstrating different concepts and best practices.

Projects

hello_rust - Basic Rust Project

• Purpose: First Rust project with basic "Hello, world!" program
• Concepts: Basic Rust syntax, cargo new, cargo run
• Learning: Getting started with Rust development

hello_cargo - Cargo Project Management

• Purpose: Understanding Cargo project structure and build system
• Concepts: Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock, project organization
• Learning: How Cargo manages dependencies and builds

hello_dep_ran - Dependencies and Advanced Concepts

• Purpose: Working with external crates and advanced Rust features
• Concepts:
  • Adding dependencies (rand crate)
  • Constants for magic numbers
  • Documentation comments (///)
  • Error handling with Result<T, E>
  • Unit tests with #[test]
  • Development tools (CodeLLDB, Even Better TOML)
• Learning: Production-ready Rust development practices

Learning Progression

1. Start with hello_rust - Basic Rust syntax and Cargo
2. Move to hello_cargo - Understanding project structure
3. Complete with hello_dep_ran - Advanced concepts and best practices
4. Explore hello_sum_calc - Clippy linting and rust-analyzer configuration

Development Environment

All projects are configured with:

• Cursor/VS Code with Rust extensions
• rust-analyzer for language support
• CodeLLDB for debugging
• Even Better TOML for configuration files

Hot Reload with cargo-watch

To enable a faster development cycle with automatic recompilation and re-running of your Rust project upon file changes, you can use cargo-watch. This tool provides "hot reload" functionality, giving you immediate feedback on your code changes.

Installation

Install cargo-watch globally so you can use the cargo watch command:

cargo install cargo-watch

Note: This installs the tool globally, making cargo watch available as a command. Adding it as a dependency with cargo add cargo-watch only makes it available to your project, but doesn't install the binary tool.

Usage

Once installed, you can use cargo-watch to monitor your source files and automatically re-run your application. Here's a common command:

cargo watch -q -c -w src/ -x 'run -q'

Explanation of the flags:

• -q (quiet): Reduces the output from cargo-watch itself, keeping your terminal cleaner
• -c (clear): Clears the terminal screen before each new run of your application, providing a fresh output
• -w src/ (watch directory): Specifies that cargo-watch should monitor the src/ directory for any file changes. This is where your Rust source code resides
• -x 'run -q' (execute command): This is the command that cargo-watch will execute whenever it detects changes
  • run: Tells Cargo to compile and run your project
  • -q: Makes the cargo run command also run in quiet mode, further reducing output

This setup allows you to save your Rust files, and cargo-watch will automatically recompile and re-run your application, providing a seamless hot-reloading experience.

Running Projects

# Navigate to any project
cd hello_rust
cd hello_cargo  
cd hello_dep_ran

# Run the project
cargo run

# Run tests (where applicable)
cargo test

# Check for errors
cargo check

Credits

https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/title-page.html