Rust offers a great deal of value: speed, safety, and a rich set of tools for working with the language. Learning the language is important, but having command of the tools provided by both the core Rust project and the wider community will help you achieve mastery quickly.
Tooling makes all the difference between a good and a bad programming language—as does your effectiveness with the tooling. Merely having awareness about what tooling is available and some of the capabilities it provides will place you head and shoulders above developers who don’t take the time to learn the tools.
In the first part of the book, we’ll spend some time introducing (or reviewing, depending on your level of expertise) the basics of the language and, in particular, the tools you’ll need to work with it. You don’t need to be a Rust Pro to use its tools, but you do need to understand the tools to effectively use the language.