I Finished My First Rust Project... Here’s What Not To Do
I’ve finally finished my first official Rust project: a CLI weather app. In this video I recap the biggest lessons, challenges, and best practices I picked up along the way. If you’re on your own Rust journey, I hope this gives you some inspiration to get your hands dirty and start building!
In this video, break down the code for fetching data from an API with the reqwest crate, handling JSON deserialization using serde, and why Rust's enums are a total game-changer compared to languages like Go. We also dive into why you should enable Clippy (especially pedantic mode) to help you write idiomatic Rust. Clippy gives better feedback than AI (Codex 5.3) and actually helps you learn from your mistakes.
No matter how much you read, you have to get your hands dirty. Building small, green-field projects is the best way to stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling confident.
⟡˖ Watch Live
I live stream the entire process of learning Rust and building these projects every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 12pm PT. Subscribe to follow along with the journey!
⟡˖ Links
https://github.com/bashbunni/measured
Translate JSON requests to data structures in your language of choice - https://app.quicktype.io/
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro: Recap of the First Rust Project
00:19 - Why You MUST Use Clippy (Pedantic Mode)
01:12 - Clippy vs. AI for Debugging Rust
02:15 - Weather App Demo & Functionality
02:41 - Handling JSON & API Requests with Reqwest
03:07 - Pattern Matching & Error Handling
03:55 - Complex Deserialization with Serde
04:56 - Working with Synchronous Code
05:12 - Power of Rust Enums & New Type Variants
05:42 - Handling User Input (stdin to an enum)
06:27 - Implementing the FromStr Trait
07:03 - Custom Error Types vs. Anyhow
09:13 - Idiomatic Rust: Explicit Returns & Formatting
09:42 - The Importance of Hands-on Practice
10:42 - Final Retro + Feedback
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