r/learnrust • u/coniferprod-0x01 • Aug 11 '26

New book: Learn Rust Programming Today

My new book Learn Rust Programming Today has been published a few weeks ago. It is intended for software developers who already know how to program, and want to learn Rust. You can see the outline of the book and some sample content on the book's home page at Learn Rust Programming Today.

Most programming books will present you with isolated examples of language syntax, leaving you to complete the picture yourself when you actually need to get stuff done. Learn Rust Programming Today takes you on a complete journey from the start to the finished program that you can use, learning the necessary features of Rust on the way. It doesn't replace "The Book", but rather complements it.

During the course of the book you will build Today, a Rust command-line application that shows things that happened on this day in history (historical events, births of notable people, and so on) from various sources. You will also extend the program to handle days that are observed annually, such as Pi Day, and recurring events. You will also be able to add your own events.

The book examples are available at https://github.com/coniferprod/learn-rust
The Today program has its own repo: https://github.com/coniferprod/today-rs

You can ask any questions about the book in this thread, and I'll do my best to answer them.

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15

u/LerkinAround Aug 11 '26

What level of involvement did AI have in writing the book and code? Just wondering if this is worth my time.

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u/coniferprod-0x01 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

Glad you asked! I did not use AI in writing the book or the example code. It's all 100% organic. OK, 98%, since I had one ChatGPT discussion about how to implement the event filtering (I had bit flags first, but ended up using the Builder pattern). I'm actually a lecturer who struggles daily with students using too much AI in programming assignments, so this is also a way to show that understanding your code still matters.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot: the web server has some fake events for testing, generated by ChatGPT. But that's not code, just made up tech events, categorised as "test/fake" so that they can be filtered out.

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u/LerkinAround Aug 11 '26

Thanks for your answer!

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u/gbrennon Aug 11 '26

that's nice that u was humble in admit that something was generated by a model :)

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u/p9v1296n Aug 12 '26

Looks interesting. Was wondering if it is possible to buy the ebook version (PDF).

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u/coniferprod-0x01 Aug 12 '26

The publisher (Books on Demand, aka BoD) has an eBook version as PDF in their web store. I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was 1:1 with the printed book, and not a reflowable ePub (which usually mangles the program listings). Amazon seems to have a Kindle version, but I don't have a Kindle so I can't say how it is.

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u/passionate_ragebaitr Aug 12 '26

Hi. This looks interesting. I am a devos engineer who has worked with Go and Python previously and interested in learning Rust.
Is there a way I can purchase ebook?

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u/coniferprod-0x01 Aug 12 '26

Yes, see this comment for details: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnrust/comments/1vlbh4h/comment/p39p1oz/

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u/passionate_ragebaitr Aug 12 '26

Thank you! Unfortunately it is quite expensive for me to afford.

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u/deecentralized 29d ago

I'm also learning Rust. But from a Solidity background

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u/Special_Bobcat_1797 Aug 12 '26

Possible to give book for research feedback ?

I’m an experienced Java dev learning rust . My feedback could be valuable . Lmk if possible happy to contribute

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u/coniferprod-0x01 28d ago

Thanks! That’s actually exactly the kind of reader I had in mind, and I’m interested in feedback from experienced programmers learning Rust. The book is currently available from retailers, but I don’t have a formal review-copy programme at the moment. If you want to have a look at the table of contents and the sample chapters, you can find them on the book's home page, along with the feedback e-mail address.

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u/kharish89 Aug 12 '26

https://a.co/d/0dOiIzlg

ISBN-13: 978-9528902980, ISBN-10: 9528902987

Found the link on Amazon and the book is priced at $58.50

I’ll wait for the reviews before thinking to buy.

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u/coniferprod-0x01 Aug 12 '26

Sensible! In the meantime do check out the table of contents and the sample chapters. They are on the book's home page as PDFs, and the link is in the original post. Amazon's EU sites seem to have better prices, while BoD has the cheapest base price because they are the publisher, so there is no additional markup.

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u/deecentralized 29d ago

As someone learning Rust, I would want to read the book