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Discussion on: Swift vs. Rust -- an Overview of Swift from a Rusty Perspective

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Sarfaraz Nawaz • Edited

Question: in your opinion what would be the best learning path for an absolute beginner to programming to learn Rust?
Would you recommend learning Swift first then sliding over to Rust?

Tom, you didn't ask me but still I'm giving my opinion here. An absolute beginner can learn Rust directly. It'd be difficult for sure, but then for an absolute beginner, any language would be difficult (not the same level of difficulty though). But learning one language first, then Rust ... is a more difficult path, as Rust changes the way one thinks about resources (memory, file, lock, etc).

When I started learning Rust almost 7 years back, I knew several languages including C++ (which I'm most comfortable with). Programmers who know C++ have one advantage over others, when they start learning Rust ... and it is because Rust attempts to solve the issues which are common in C++. It's designed from C++'s problems perspective. So a C++ programmer quickly understands why a certain Rust's feature is designed in a specific way. They know the context! At least that is what I felt when I came to Rust.