Rust is a high-level, multi-paradigm, systems programming language designed for performance and safety, particularly safe concurrency. Developed by Mozilla Foundation, Rust has gained popularity for system design due to its focus on speed, memory safety, and parallelism.
With its robust type system and ownership model, Rust provides zero-cost abstractions and guarantees thread safety, preventing common programming errors like null pointer dereferencing and data races. It offers functional, concurrent, and imperative-procedural paradigms. Additionally, Rust has a reliable and productive toolchain which includes Cargo (Rust's built-in package manager), Rustup (CLI tool to manage Rust versions) and Rustfmt (a tool for formatting Rust code).
For anyone looking to master Rust, a solid understanding of system design and experience with another systems programming or lower-level language like C++ or C# is highly beneficial. It is also beneficial to have a grasp of concepts related to parallel computing and memory safety, as these are important themes in Rust development.
Working knowledge of functional programming languages can be an asset, as Rust promotes the use of functional programming paradigms. Knowledge of version control systems, especially Git, is frequently required as Rust uses a git-based workflow.
In conclusion, companies looking for individuals skilled in Rust value not just knowledge of the language itself, but an understanding of its underlying principles and optimal use-cases. Mastering Rust could open up opportunities in system development, game development, operating systems, browser components, and even virtual reality applications.