3 ms·

It's also confusing that there are: 1. A first edition that is marked as outdated [1] 2. A second editions that seems to be not outdated [2] but 3. also the bo

It's also confusing that there are: 1. A first edition that is marked as outdated [1] 2. A second editions that seems to be not outdated [2] but 3. also the book without any edition marker that differs from the second edition [3] 4. As well as the second edition for various rust versions (eg [4] or [5]) And all of them are only distinguishable via the url. I guess the book without any version or edition marker [3] is the nightly version? But I am not sure. I guess the second-edition does not differ much between the rust versions as the chapters look the same, except for bug fixes? I am not sure. As a beginner learning rust that is really confusing because I am never sure if I am reading the correct book or if there is some other version with more information. Eg why differs [6] so much from [7] when both are the "second edition"? Ok, while writing this comment I now see that [2] are only empty pages linking to [8] and that all that books and documentation are generated for each rust version. But my point still stands: When coming from the google search result page to the rust documentation there is some confusion of what I am looking at. [1]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/first-edition/index.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/first-edition/index.html [2]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/second-edition/index.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/second-edition/index.html [3]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ [4]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.28.0/book/second-edition/foreword.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.28.0/book/second-edition/forewor... [5]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.29.0/book/second-edition/foreword.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.29.0/book/second-edition/forewor... [6]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/second-edition/appendix-04-macros.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/second-edition/appendix-04-ma... [7]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.30.0/book/second-edition/appendix-04-macros.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.30.0/book/second-edition/appendi... [8]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.30.0/book/second-edition/ https://doc.rust-lang.org/1.30.0/book/second-edition/

steveklabnik 8y ago
As of Rust 1.31, there's only one version of the book, doc.rust-lang.org/book Here's a short history: I wrote the first edition myself, before Rust 1.0. Then, Carol and I started a re-write. When it was ready to be published, we cut the final draft as the "second edition", and forked off new work in what was called the "2018 edition". That's why they're so similar. However, for various reasons, this situation isn't ideal. So we've decided to only ship the "edge" version of the book, even if it may be a bit ahead of what's currently in print.
- fhrow4484 8y ago
  Thanks for chiming in here and giving more context. I agree with other commenters about the potential confusion for beginners. The tour of rust in 30 min should probably do an automatic redirect to the doc.rust-lang.org/book I'd love it if there was something interactive like the golang tour but the book is already a great resource. Thanks for writing it
  - steveklabnik 8y ago
    You’re welcome! That’s “Rust by example”, by the way.

steveklabnik 8y ago

As of Rust 1.31, there's only one version of the book, doc.rust-lang.org/book Here's a short history: I wrote the first edition myself, before Rust 1.0. Then, Carol and I started a re-write. When it was ready to be published, we cut the final draft as the "second edition", and forked off new work in what was called the "2018 edition". That's why they're so similar. However, for various reasons, this situation isn't ideal. So we've decided to only ship the "edge" version of the book, even if it may be a bit ahead of what's currently in print.

fhrow4484 8y ago
Thanks for chiming in here and giving more context. I agree with other commenters about the potential confusion for beginners. The tour of rust in 30 min should probably do an automatic redirect to the doc.rust-lang.org/book I'd love it if there was something interactive like the golang tour but the book is already a great resource. Thanks for writing it
- steveklabnik 8y ago
  You’re welcome! That’s “Rust by example”, by the way.