1  Why Rust?

TipObjective

Provide motivation for why learning Rust is a use of our time. Discuss what Rust is and how it is unique compared to other compiled langauges.

🧠 Think of Rust as “C for people who like error messages that actually help.”

TL;DR

• R is interpreted. Code runs line by line.
• R (and Python) are built on C.
• C is compiled — it builds a binary that runs directly on your machine.
• Rust is also compiled, like C, C++, Go, Java, and Fortran.
• These languages are “close to the metal” — fast, efficient, and powerful.
• Rust matches C++ in speed, but with some key advantages:
  • Memory safety without a garbage collector (unlike Go), thanks to the borrow checker.
  • A great developer experience:
    • Helpful, friendly compiler errors (Tidyverse-level DX).
    • Modern tooling (cargo, rustdoc, rustfmt, rust-analyzer, etc.).
• Rust is easy to get started with and rewards best practices.
  • We won’t go deep into memory safety or concurrency today
• Rust uses errors as data, unlike R and C++, Rust does not support exceptions