🦀 Learning Rust: A Project-Based Journey

A hands-on approach to mastering Rust through progressively challenging projects. This repository documents my intensive learning sprint, focusing on practical implementation over theoretical knowledge.

📚 Learning Philosophy

Learn → Build → Review → Refactor

Instead of reading exhaustively before coding, I:

1. Learn just enough from The Rust Book to start building
2. Implement projects that reinforce specific concepts
3. Seek feedback and review my approach
4. Refactor as I discover better patterns and idiomatic Rust

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a learning repository. Code quality improves as projects progress. Earlier projects may be revisited and refactored as I gain deeper understanding of Rust's patterns and best practices.

🎯 Learning Objectives

• Master Rust fundamentals: ownership, borrowing, lifetimes
• Build confidence with traits, generics, and error handling
• Understand async programming and concurrency
• Learn to work with Rust's ecosystem (crates, Cargo)
• Develop muscle memory for idiomatic Rust patterns

📋 Project Roadmap

Core Concepts & Systems Thinking

Status	Project	Focus Areas	Key Concepts
✅	Guessing Game	Syntax basics, random numbers, loops	rand crate, user input, pattern matching
✅	Temperature Converter	Functions, I/O, data types	Ownership basics, string handling
✅	Word Counter CLI	File I/O, collections	HashMap, file operations, iterators
✅	To-Do List CLI	Structs, enums, persistence	Data modeling, vector operations
✅	Simple Calculator	Pattern matching, error handling	match expressions, Result type
✅	Contact Book CLI	Serialization, data structures	serde, JSON, CRUD operations
✅	Matrix Library	Traits, generics, operator overloading	Generic programming, std::ops traits
✅	Mini CSV Parser	Iterators, closures	Iterator adapters, functional patterns
✅	Markdown → HTML Converter	String parsing, regex, enums	Text processing, regex crate

Async, Networking & Backend

Status	Project	Focus Areas	Key Concepts
✅	HTTP Fetcher CLI	Async basics, concurrency	tokio, reqwest, async/await
✅	Chat Server (TCP)	Networking, channels	TCP sockets, message passing
✅	Weather CLI	External APIs, JSON	REST APIs, error propagation
✅	Mini Blockchain Ledger	Systems thinking, hashing	Cryptography, data structures
✅	Task Manager REST API	Backend fundamentals	axum, HTTP handlers, routing

Legend:

• ✅ Completed
• 🔨 In Progress
• 📅 Planned

🛠️ Tech Stack & Tools

• Language: Rust 2024 Edition
• Package Manager: Cargo
• Key Crates: serde, tokio, axum, reqwest, regex, rand, anyhow
• Learning Resources: The Rust Book, Rustlings, Exercism

🏗️ Repository Structure

.
├── README.md                    # This file
├── guessing_game/              # Level 1 projects
├── temp_converter/
├── word_counter/
├── to-do_list/
├── simple_calculator/
├── contact_book/               # Level 2 projects
├── matrix_lib/                 # Level 3 projects
├── mini_csv_parser/
├── markdown_to_html_converter/
├── http_fetcher/               # Level 4+ projects
├── chat_server/
├── weather_cli/
├── mini_blockchain/
└── task_manager_api/

Each project is a standalone Cargo workspace with its own Cargo.toml and dependencies.

🚀 Getting Started

To run any project:

cd project_name
cargo run

To run tests:

cargo test

📈 Progress Tracking

• Current Focus: Mini Blockchain Ledger
• Completed Projects: 14/14
• Lines of Code Written: ~20,000+

🔄 Iteration & Improvement

As I progress, earlier projects may be refactored to incorporate:

• Better error handling patterns
• More idiomatic Rust code
• Additional features that demonstrate new concepts
• Improved documentation and tests

This iterative approach mirrors real-world software development and reinforces learning.

🤝 Feedback Welcome

This is a learning journey, and I'm actively seeking:

• Code review and suggestions for improvement
• Idiomatic Rust patterns I might have missed
• Better approaches to problem-solving in Rust
• General feedback on project structure and architecture

📝 Notes

• Projects increase in complexity and introduce new Rust concepts progressively
• Each project folder contains its own README with specific learning objectives
• Some projects may have multiple iterations as I refactor with new knowledge
• Focus is on understanding why Rust works this way, not just how to write it

🔗 Resources

• The Rust Book
• Rust by Example
• Rustlings
• Exercism Rust Track

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"The best way to learn Rust is to write Rust." - Building in public, one project at a time.