> I do wonder if Rust is easier or harder than other comparable languages like C / C++ when the person has no prior knowledge of programming.
I can answer this because I previously taught the course in C and C++. The students supposedly have some knowledge of Java but they seem to always have forgotten all of it when they reach me.
Students learning C use all of the footguns you can imagine. The biggest problem for them is writing code that segfaults, and their code always segfaults. It's not so much a problem that it does, but that there is 0 useful feedback as to why the segfault occurred and where they could potentially look to fix the problem. The bigger issue for them is memory management. They frequently walk into the use after free, double free, and memory leak walls. They also have significant trouble with N-dimensional pointer arrays. They have trouble allocating the appropriate memory for these arrays and can't seem to visualize the layout of memory.
C++ is a little better because they have experience with Java, but they are frequently mystified by constructors/destructors and how to manage memory manually (they only have experience with a GC), and template programming is always an issue. But they still run into the same issue with segfaults.
Rust makes all of this go away. They don't have to manage their memory manually, and they don't encounter a single segfault. Ever. We are able to just sweep all of those problems under the rug, and move on to actual content. With C/C++ we focused a lot on the language with the hope we could use it as a tool eventually, with Rust we use the language as a tool and focus on the wider world of applications for which that tool is useful.
I can answer this because I previously taught the course in C and C++. The students supposedly have some knowledge of Java but they seem to always have forgotten all of it when they reach me.
Students learning C use all of the footguns you can imagine. The biggest problem for them is writing code that segfaults, and their code always segfaults. It's not so much a problem that it does, but that there is 0 useful feedback as to why the segfault occurred and where they could potentially look to fix the problem. The bigger issue for them is memory management. They frequently walk into the use after free, double free, and memory leak walls. They also have significant trouble with N-dimensional pointer arrays. They have trouble allocating the appropriate memory for these arrays and can't seem to visualize the layout of memory.
C++ is a little better because they have experience with Java, but they are frequently mystified by constructors/destructors and how to manage memory manually (they only have experience with a GC), and template programming is always an issue. But they still run into the same issue with segfaults.
Rust makes all of this go away. They don't have to manage their memory manually, and they don't encounter a single segfault. Ever. We are able to just sweep all of those problems under the rug, and move on to actual content. With C/C++ we focused a lot on the language with the hope we could use it as a tool eventually, with Rust we use the language as a tool and focus on the wider world of applications for which that tool is useful.