Preface
Rustisalanguageforsystemsprogramming.
Thisbearssomeexplanationthesedays,assystemsprogrammingis
unfamiliartomostworkingprogrammers.Yetitunderlieseverythingwe
do.
Youcloseyourlaptop.Theoperatingsystemdetectsthis,suspendsall
therunningprograms,turnsoffthescreen,andputsthecomputerto
sleep.Later,youopenthelaptop:thescreenandothercomponentsare
poweredupagain,andeachprogramisabletopickupwhereitleftoff.
Wetakethisforgranted.Butsystemsprogrammerswrotealotofcodeto
makethathappen.
Systemsprogrammingisfor:
Operatingsystems
Devicedriversofallkinds
Filesystems
Databases
Codethatrunsinverycheapdevices,ordevicesthatmustbe
extremelyreliable
Cryptography
Mediacodecs(softwareforreadingandwritingaudio,video,and
imagefiles)
Mediaprocessing(forexample,speechrecognitionorphoto
editingsoftware)
Memorymanagement(forexample,implementingagarbage
collector)
Textrendering(theconversionoftextandfontsintopixels)
