This week, we’re diving into some exciting Rust updates: the 2024 State of Rust Survey results are in, async closures are on the horizon, and if/let while chains are set to clean up your control flow. There’s plenty to catch up on, so let’s get right to it!

The 2024 State of Rust Survey: Key Takeaways for Rustaceans

The Rust Survey Team has released the 2024 State of Rust Survey Results, offering a comprehensive look into the language’s growth and the community’s evolving dynamics.

Key Insights

1. Global Reach: Rust’s community remains diverse, with the United States (22%), Germany (14%), and the United Kingdom (6%) leading in participation. Notably, countries like China (5%) and the Netherlands (3%) also have significant representation.
2. Increased Workplace Adoption: There’s a notable rise in Rust usage at work, with 38% of respondents using Rust for the majority of their coding—a 4 percentage point increase from the previous year.
3. Learning Resources: The Rust documentation and “The Rust Programming Language” book continue to be primary learning tools. Additionally, many developers benefit from reading the source code of Rust crates, highlighting the community’s collaborative spirit.
4. Challenges Faced: While Rust’s runtime performance and documentation are praised, areas like slow compilation times and debugging support have been identified as productivity hurdles.
5. Desired Features: The community eagerly anticipates features like async closures and if/let while chains. Fortunately, async closures are set to be stabilized in Rust 1.85, with if/let while chains expected to follow soon.

For a deeper dive into the survey results, you can read the full report on the Rust Blog.

Rust’s Next Ergonomic Boost: Async Closures & If/Let While Chains

Rust is about to get even smoother with two powerful new features: async closures (planned for Rust 1.85) and if/let while chains. These changes promise to make Rust code cleaner, more expressive, and easier to write, whether you’re dealing with async logic or complex conditionals.

Async closures will finally let you write concise async functions without awkward workarounds, while if/let while chains will eliminate unnecessary nesting in conditional expressions and loops.

Curious about how these features will improve your Rust experience? Check out these two articles:

• Async Closures: A New Way to Handle Asynchronous Logic
• If/Let While Chains: Cleaner Control Flow is Coming!

Rust keeps evolving—are you ready to take advantage of what’s next?

Rust Useful for Scientists? Key Insights from the Community

A recent Reddit discussion—“Is RUST useful for a scientist?”—delves into the applicability of Rust in scientific fields. Here are some key takeaways:

1. Performance Enhancement via Python Integration: Rust can be used to develop high-performance Python libraries using tools like PyO3, enabling faster computations.
2. Learning for Enjoyment: For those learning programming for pleasure, Rust is often recommended over C++ due to its modern features and safety guarantees.
3. SIMD Utilization: Rust’s standard library includes a portable SIMD module, which can be leveraged for performance improvements in scientific computations.
4. Community Resources: Websites like Are We Learning Yet? provide insights into Rust’s capabilities in machine learning and scientific computing, aiding in decision-making.
5. Personal Development: Engaging with Rust can be intellectually stimulating, offering a deeper understanding of systems programming and staying mentally active.

In summary, while Rust may not be essential for every scientific project, it offers valuable tools and learning opportunities for those interested in exploring its potential in scientific computing.

Snippets

• “We Are Almost At The 'Write A Real Driver In Rust' Stage Now” (Linux 6.14)
• Writing a Simple Windows Driver in Rust
• Build Serverless Applications Using Rust on AWS Lambda

We are thrilled to have you as part of our growing community of Rust enthusiasts! If you found value in this newsletter, don't keep it to yourself — share it with your network and let's grow the Rust community together.

👉 Take Action Now:

• Share: Forward this email to share this newsletter with your colleagues and friends.

• Engage: Have thoughts or questions? Reply to this email.

• Subscribe: Not a subscriber yet? Click here to never miss an update from Rust Trends.
  
  

Cheers, Bob Peters