According to Marco Otte-Witte, Founder of Mainmatter, and Stefan Baumgartner, Senior Product Architect at Dynatrace, Rust allows developers to write more stable software with fewer maintenance issues and higher efficiency, resulting in cost savings for companies. In the interview, Stefan shared his experience introducing Rust to Dynatrace’s platform, and how they delivered a functioning prototype within a few days for a particular use case. Ever since, his team at Dynatrace has been able to maintain and run the Rust-based product smoothly with minimal issues, proving that Rust is a stable and efficient language for such projects.
The conversation then moves to Stefan's personal experience with programming languages and his journey to learning and teaching Rust. He discussed his background with languages like C, C++, and C# and his first transition to web development with JavaScript.
Stefan highlights the importance of understanding memory management and low-level concepts when programming, which Rust enforces and guides programmers through. He debated how teaching Rust to others, especially those familiar with dynamic or scripted languages, brings a fresh perspective and empowers developers to write efficient and reliable software. Learning Rust may be more challenging for those already accustomed to certain concepts like automatic garbage collection, as they need to adapt to a new way of dealing with obstacles. Therefore – Stefan explained - it is important to provide learners with concrete problems to solve when teaching Rust and encourage them to work towards a goal.
Lastly, Stefan discusses different timelines from his own experience and suggested that having mentors and guidance throughout the learning process is essential for success in Rust due to its explicit decision-making requirements and complex concepts.