Glossary

The following is a glossary which aims to give a short definition of many Rust terms. For translations, this also serves to connect the term back to the English original.

• allocate: Dynamic memory allocation on the heap.
• argument: Information that is passed into a function or method.
• associated type: A type associated with a specific trait. Useful for defining the relationship between types.
• Bare-metal Rust: Low-level Rust development, often deployed to a system without an operating system. See Bare-metal Rust.
• block: See Blocks and scope.
• borrow: See Borrowing.
• borrow checker: The part of the Rust compiler which checks that all borrows are valid.
• brace: { and }. Also called curly brace, they delimit blocks.
• build: The process of converting source code into executable code or a usable program.
• call: To invoke or execute a function or method.
• channel: Used to safely pass messages between threads.
• Comprehensive Rust 🦀: The courses here are jointly called Comprehensive Rust 🦀.
• concurrency: The execution of multiple tasks or processes at the same time.
• Concurrency in Rust: See Concurrency in Rust.
• constant: A value that does not change during the execution of a program.
• control flow: The order in which the individual statements or instructions are executed in a program.
• crash: An unexpected and unhandled failure or termination of a program.
• enumeration: A data type that holds one of several named constants, possibly with an associated tuple or struct.
• error: An unexpected condition or result that deviates from the expected behavior.
• error handling: The process of managing and responding to errors that occur during program execution.
• exercise: A task or problem designed to practice and test programming skills.
• function: A reusable block of code that performs a specific task.
• garbage collector: A mechanism that automatically frees up memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use.
• generics: A feature that allows writing code with placeholders for types, enabling code reuse with different data types.
• immutable: Unable to be changed after creation.
• integration test: A type of test that verifies the interactions between different parts or components of a system.
• keyword: A reserved word in a programming language that has a specific meaning and cannot be used as an identifier.
• library: A collection of precompiled routines or code that can be used by programs.
• macro: Rust macros can be recognized by a ! in the name. Macros are used when normal functions are not enough. A typical example is format!, which takes a variable number of arguments, which isn’t supported by Rust functions.
• main function: Rust programs start executing with the main function.
• match: A control flow construct in Rust that allows for pattern matching on the value of an expression.
• memory leak: A situation where a program fails to release memory that is no longer needed, leading to a gradual increase in memory usage.
• method: A function associated with an object or a type in Rust.
• module: A namespace that contains definitions, such as functions, types, or traits, to organize code in Rust.
• move: The transfer of ownership of a value from one variable to another in Rust.
• mutable: A property in Rust that allows variables to be modified after they have been declared.
• ownership: The concept in Rust that defines which part of the code is responsible for managing the memory associated with a value.
• panic: An unrecoverable error condition in Rust that results in the termination of the program.
• parameter: A value that is passed into a function or method when it is called.
• pattern: A combination of values, literals, or structures that can be matched against an expression in Rust.
• payload: The data or information carried by a message, event, or data structure.
• program: A set of instructions that a computer can execute to perform a specific task or solve a particular problem.
• programming language: A formal system used to communicate instructions to a computer, such as Rust.
• receiver: The first parameter in a Rust method that represents the instance on which the method is called.
• reference counting: A memory management technique in which the number of references to an object is tracked, and the object is deallocated when the count reaches zero.
• return: A keyword in Rust used to indicate the value to be returned from a function.
• Rust: A systems programming language that focuses on safety, performance, and concurrency.
• Rust Fundamentals: Days 1 to 4 of this course.
• Rust in Android: See Rust in Android.
• Rust in Chromium: See Rust in Chromium.
• safe: Refers to code that adheres to Rust’s ownership and borrowing rules, preventing memory-related errors.
• scope: The region of a program where a variable is valid and can be used.
• standard library: A collection of modules providing essential functionality in Rust.
• static: A keyword in Rust used to define static variables or items with a 'static lifetime.
• string: A data type storing textual data. See Strings for more.
• struct: A composite data type in Rust that groups together variables of different types under a single name.
• test: A Rust module containing functions that test the correctness of other functions.
• thread: A separate sequence of execution in a program, allowing concurrent execution.
• thread safety: The property of a program that ensures correct behavior in a multithreaded environment.
• trait: A collection of methods defined for an unknown type, providing a way to achieve polymorphism in Rust.
• trait bound: An abstraction where you can require types to implement some traits of your interest.
• tuple: A composite data type that contains variables of different types. Tuple fields have no names, and are accessed by their ordinal numbers.
• type: A classification that specifies which operations can be performed on values of a particular kind in Rust.
• type inference: The ability of the Rust compiler to deduce the type of a variable or expression.
• undefined behavior: Actions or conditions in Rust that have no specified result, often leading to unpredictable program behavior.
• union: A data type that can hold values of different types but only one at a time.
• unit test: Rust comes with built-in support for running small unit tests and larger integration tests. See Unit Tests.
• unit type: Type that holds no data, written as a tuple with no members.
• unsafe: The subset of Rust which allows you to trigger undefined behavior. See Unsafe Rust.
• variable: A memory location storing data. Variables are valid in a scope.