Post about Rust

Author: chrisnewtn

pages/posts/2025-01-31-rust.md

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+---
+title: Rust 🦀
+description: "Rust is a performant, strongly typed language. This post covers why I chose to learn it, and some stuff I've made with it."
+date-published: 2025-01-31
+template: post.template.html
+tags:
+  - rust
+  - adventofcode
+  - wasm
+  - webassembly
+  - javascript
+---
+
+# Rust 🦀
+
+For some time I've wanted to learn a performant, strongly typed, low-level language, and in 2024 I decided that language is [Rust][rust-lang].
+
+I've chosen Rust as it's different enough from JavaScript, both in terms of how it's written and how it's used, yet it can also interoperate with JS via [WebAssembly][wasm]. So it's something new, but it can also serve my core competency.
+
+I've been bothered for a while by TypeScript. I'm not sure where it fits. I think JavaScript still has its place as the default way websites are augmented with code. I believe TypeScript seeks to address perceived shortcomings of JS in ways that are better addressed by other tools like WASM, and by continuing to iterate upon JS directly.
+
+The way I figure it, I can maximise the benefits of types using a language built with them in mind from the ground up. A language that isn't held back by what it must compile down to. I could go on at length about this, but this post is supposed to be about Rust.
+
+I want this post to act as the hub for all the Rust projects I have worked on and what I'm working on at the moment.
+
+## Advent of Code 2024 🎄
+
+I started the [2024 Advent of Code][aoc2024] in JS, but switched to Rust after a few days. Some of the native features of Rust like [enumerations][rust-enum] and [match expressions][rust-match], hardly the most unique or groundbreaking, made some of the problems easier to reason about for me.
+
+Also, my Advent of Code solutions tend not to be most efficient as my maths background is a bit weak, so using a performant language like Rust serves to compensate for some of that.
+
+You can [check out my solutions here][my-aoc2024] if you're interested.
+
+## WASM Game of Life 🧬
+
+There's a fantastic [book on the Rust website][rust-wasm-book] that covers getting started with compiling Rust to WebAssembly. The book's tutorial covers building [Conway's Game of Life][game-of-life], and you can find [my implementation of it here][my-gol].
+
+[rust-lang]: https://www.rust-lang.org/
+[wasm]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly
+[aoc2024]: https://adventofcode.com/2024
+[rust-enum]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch06-01-defining-an-enum.html
+[rust-match]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch06-02-match.html
+[my-aoc2024]: https://github.com/chrisnewtn/adventofcode2024
+[rust-wasm-book]: https://rustwasm.github.io/docs/book/
+[game-of-life]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life
+[my-gol]: https://game-of-life.chrisnewtn.com/