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Google says replacing C/C++ in firmware with Rust is easy
(www.theregister.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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If the target for the firmware has stdlib already implemented, my experience has been that it is indeed easy with minimal experience in the language.
Mixing "firmware" with "easy with minimal experience" in the same sentence makes me cringe...
That's fair. To be clear, I meant minimal experience with the Rust programming language. I've mainly tinkered with ESP32 types of MCUs in Arduino and CircuitPython when it comes to firmware, but have much more software experience. In some ways, I found the little bit of Rust that I tried easier because of the tooling - defaulting to a CLI tool to flash rather than an IDE is much more comfortable for me.
I've been meaning to play with rust, and I've always enjoyed tinkering with various MCUs... Although I'm not very strong with firmware/embedded programming.
Do you think programming an ESP32 is a good project for learning rust?
Any suggested place to start? (Tutorials, YouTube Vida etc)
I've only barely scratched the surface there myself but, I absolutely do think so. For several reasons. First, ESP32 is one of the few series of MCUs that support the Rust stdlib. And learning what that entails for Rust is extremely helpful in conceptualizing build targets. Second, MCUs are a very constrained target for software/firmware. Getting comfortable there will likely improve your code efficiency in other code platforms as you are more likely to think about resource usage earlier. And third, there's some pretty excellent docs and tutorials.
For tutorials, my recommended starting point is with the official docs/books themselves:
I/O and logic for an MCU. The hardest bits, TBH, are already done with the ESP32 series MCUs, thanks to the efforts to get the Rust stdlib and HAL supported. So, the experience, code-wise, isn't much different from Arduino or Micro/CircuitPython. Mostly, it's down to syntax, flashing toolchain, and logic.
So, the experience is likely to be similar to development on with a full-fledged CPU/SoC target. I'd suggest that the experience of developing for an MCU, regardless of language, is likely to put one up against constraints that will make them think more about resource management considerations when approaching other target platforms.
Meh, it's depends on what you do. I know several low level C engineers who would be far more comfortable rolling a fresh driver over doing some more abstract intro CS projects.