Resource for beginners and idea for a beginner project

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Another learning resource

Frequently see people asking where to start with Rust, or looking for ideas for a simple but interesting project.

I'm going through the link below myself, and it might be a good place to start, if you already know programming:

Mind the info below:

Prerequisites: This tutorial does not replace a general introduction to programming, and expects you to be familiar with a few common concepts. You should be comfortable with using a command line/terminal. If you already know a few other languages, this can be a good first contact with Rust.

Idea for a custom project

An idea for a project is a CLI tool that runs as an mdbook plugin (pre or post processor).

  • It would be named mdbook-mything,
  • Users need to add in the book.toml file.

When creating a book, the mdbook binary executes our binary as mdbook-mything ... which can modify the content of the book (process it.)

3rd party apps as the one you could make are found here, sadly many are AI slop --only enhanced by humans finding bugs-- but some are useful.

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That book is listed as an official learning resource at Learn Rust - Rust Programming Language, and also for the popular clap crate clap - Rust under "Documentation". So that page should be well known. For people looking for a learning resource with a very flat learning curve, we have also the non-free book "Command-line Rust" -- it is quite well written, but advanced very slowly. I only read a few pages at Google books.

For your idea creating mdbook plugins: For that we do not really need the clap crate, and it is mostly interesting only for people who intend to write a mdbook book -- I once created a plugin to insert section numbers.

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Obviously, someone starting would not have gotten to clap, and may think the book was too long to get started.

So I think some may find it useful.

Also, for the plugin, you can certainly use clap, or concepts learnt in that intro (like using std::env::args.)

As for the project it is an option. It is not mandatory. Just another option.

But I understand we disagree, I hope it is not a sin. I do find creating a book plugin a fun and useful project.

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It's funny, but my first Rust project was writing a clap, heavily referenced by the guide. It looks like we think very aligned. Good work.

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