The Rust programming language

This first edition of 2023 is all about the Rust programming language. An elegant language, created by Mozilla. Kris van Rens will take us on a tour: talking about memory safety (even in concurrent contexts), the great eco-system and showcase the language in general.

The program:

• 17:45 — Doors open (5th floor of the Videolab at Strijp-S)
• 18:15 — Food (vegan options available)
• 19:00 — The Rust programming language by Kris van Rens

In this presentation, I'm going to show what Rust is about from the perspective of C++, a language to which Rust beares many similarities. Learning another programming language can be tough, but it will advance your skills, even in the languages you already know.

Correct memory handling and avoiding undefined behavior is required for software to be reliable and secure. In C++ and other similar programming languages, we deal with this by using the compiler, experience, best practices, design rules, helper types, static analyzers, etc. However, memory errors are still one of the major sources of bugs in software. One of the main claims to fame for the programming language Rust is that it guarantees memory safety, even in concurrent contexts. This is a bold claim, which comes at the cost of restrictions enforced at compile-time. Still, Rust is very expressive, and in most ways it offers flexibility and performance similar to C and C++.

Another attractive aspect of Rust is its ecosystem: the build system, standard library, tooling and package management. Rust is a relatively young language in the systems development realm, yet it sees a lot of adoption, even in the web development scene. As engineers, we must use the right tool for the job; perhaps for the next job this tool is Rust.

• 20:15 — More drinks and chatting