In this talk we’ll take a look at Rust from the perspective of a Python programmer, and we’ll try to understand some of Rust’s novel features in terms of Python. Rust features like lifetimes, ownership, and traits, along with aspects like how Rust handles errors, can feel quite foreign to programmers whose main experience is with Python. Likewise, Rust’s support for modules and functions will be relatively familiar to Python programmers. By exploring these differences and similarities we can start to clarify how to think in Rust and appreciate - even celebrate! - the differences between the languages.

My main hope with this talk is to ground your exploration of Rust in knowledge that you already have. Rust can feel intimidating, but by presenting it in terms that you’re already familiar with we can dispel some of the mystery. With the right metaphors and comparisons, the journey from Python to Rust can be surprisingly straightforward. Even in situations where there is no obvious path from Python to Rust, simply recognizing that “Rust just does things differently” can be enlightening and liberating.