Rust vs. Python: Choosing the Right Programming Language

Writing code and constructing applications may be done with two popular programming languages Rust and Python. Compared to Python, which is widely used and well-established, Rust is a relatively new programming language that is becoming more and more popular among developers of software.

We’ll look at the features, advantages, and disadvantages of both Python and Rust in order to help you decide which language is best for your next project. Initially, let us define every one of these languages.

Rust vs. Python: An Introduction

Rust and Python are both recent software development smash hits, so the Rust vs Python comparison is rather common. Many software developers are interested in learning about the advantages and disadvantages of these two prominent programming languages. They also want to learn more about Rust vs Python performance, Python and Rust code, and whether Rust is a solid option for Python programmers.

Experience the power of our python course with a free demo – Enroll now!

What is Rust?

Rust is a systems programming language primarily used for memory management, safety, and performance. It was founded in 2006 by the software business Mozilla. Rust has garnered accolades from programmers for prioritising memory safety, a feature that further appeals to companies that place a premium on data protection.

For developers who value concurrency and scalability, Rust is quickly replacing more traditional languages like C and C++. Rust is the most adored programming language, according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey from 2022, which is evidence of its rising popularity. Rust is a good choice for developing complex programmes that need to satisfy the ever-increasing technological demands of the current world since it makes scalability and concurrency simple. It supports low-level programming for Internet of Things (IoT) applications using a logical and functional grammar that developers can apply.

Key Features of Rust

1.Memory Safety

Cyber security is one of the most vital aspects to consider when it comes to building computer software. Rust is designed in a way that ensures memory safety, so you can program away without having to worry about software bugs or vulnerabilities. It is able to prevent memory-related bugs such as buffer overflows and null pointer differences thanks to design features like ownership transfer, unsafe blocks, and ownership-based concurrency time.

2.Versatility

If you are looking for a programming language that can be used across a range of platforms, Rust has you covered. It can run on Windows, Linux, and macOS with ease, making it ideal for those who value software portability.

3.High performance

Many programmers enjoy using Rust due to how fast it is. In fact, its speed is comparable with the C and C++ programming languages. There are many reasons why Rust is able to achieve high performance without sacrificing memory safety, such as its zero-cost abstractions, secure concurrency, and low-level control.

4.Community

Given that Rust is somewhat on-trend at the moment, it is little wonder why such a dedicated community of developers love using this language. There are numerous handy resources regarding Rust, so if you get stuck with anything, an explanation will only be a few clicks away. One of the most useful resources is the community section of the Rust language website. Here, you have access to forums where you can brainstorm Rust project concepts and issues with other developers, and there is also an abundance of information regarding developer meetups.

5.Backward Compatibility

Rust is expanding and evolving, and a new version of the language is released every 6 weeks. Given how frequent the updates are, Rust’s highly skilled development team strives to ensure that older code is still able to run alongside new and updated versions of the language. While each has new features and improvements, they are designed with backwards compatibility in mind.

Ready to take your python programming skills to the next level? Sign up for a free demo today!

Applications of Rust:

1.Web Development

It’s hardly surprising that so many people choose Rust for web development as it’s an all-purpose language known for its excellent performance and safety. It is capable of obtaining faster run times and lower latency in addition to being produced without errors. Because Rust does not rely on a garbage collector,a memory management tool that might slow down operations, developers are choosing it for other reasons. Future developers may choose Rust over other well-known languages like Python and JavaScript, even though those latter two are more strongly connected to web development.

2.Network Programming

Owing to its memory safety and concurrency features, Rust is an ideal programming language for network programming. Those who wish to build network applications that blend speed and security will surely be impressed by what Rust has to offer. The language’s Tokio software library has an array of useful tools developers can use to create secure, efficient, and scalable network applications. Rust can be used for a range of network programming-related tasks, including asynchronous networking, HTTP client and server development, and network protocol development.

3.System Programming

Rust has gained popularity in system programming, especially operating system development, because of its effective fusion of fast performance, low-level control, and safety. In the modern era, operating systems must be as safe as possible because cyberattacks are growing more frequent. Because of its remarkable degree of memory safety, Rust is a programming language that many system programmers find appealing. System programmers are also impressed by Rust’s reasonably fast execution times and backward compatibility.

4.Game Development

While many game developers typically opt for programming languages such as C# and C++, Rust is fast becoming a go-to option. Its speedy runtimes and efficiency make it perfect for developing games via game engines like Piston and Amethyst Engine. Rust has a variety of similarities to C++, so developers wishing to expand their knowledge base shouldn’t have too much trouble learning how to master it. Creating game engines, implementing game logic, and cross-platform development are just a few of the ways in which Rust can be used in game development.

5.Data Science Backend

Another handy use for Rust programming language is building backend systems for data science. Programmers typically use Python and R for data science, but Rust’s security and high performance make it a perfect choice for creating safe and speedy data analytics tools. By using Rust for data science, developers will be able to implement performance-critical algorithms, build data processing pipelines, and develop web-based data visualisation tools with outstanding results.

Use Cases of Rust

IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast expanding field in which Rust has found a substantial application case. Rust’s memory safety and low-level control make it an ideal candidate for designing embedded systems in IoT devices, which often have limited resources. Because of its ability to handle concurrency, Rust is well suited for applications that need handling many connections.

Embedded Systems

Because of its emphasis on memory safety and control, Rust is an ideal choice for designing embedded systems. Embedded systems are employed in a variety of applications, such as medical devices, aeronautical systems, and automotive systems. The characteristics of Rust make it suited for designing low-level device drivers and operating systems.

Robotics

Another area where Rust has found many applications is robotics. Real-time processing is required in robotics, and Rust’s low-level control and memory safety make it perfect for designing real-time applications. Concurrency capabilities in Rust allow it to handle numerous threads efficiently, which is critical in robotics applications.

Industrial Automation

Another area where Rust has found many applications is industrial automation. Controlling complicated systems is a requirement of industrial automation, and Rust’s emphasis on safety and low-level control makes it perfect for building control systems. Rust’s ability to handle concurrency also makes it suited for handling several devices at the same time.

Automobiles

Rust’s memory safety and concurrency features make it a good choice for writing software for automobiles. Rust can be used to create software for a variety of automotive components, such as engine control units, infotainment systems, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Devices

Because of its emphasis on memory safety and control, Rust is an ideal choice for writing software for a variety of devices. Rust’s concurrency support makes it ideal for writing applications for devices that demand real-time processing. Rust may be used to create software for a variety of devices such as cameras, smart home devices, and wearables.

AR/VR

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming increasingly popular, and Rust has discovered numerous use cases in this domain. Rust’s low-level control and memory safety make it ideal for designing real-time applications that require low latency and excellent performance.

Concurrency features of Rust allow it to handle numerous threads efficiently, which is vital for designing AR/VR apps. Rust’s concurrency features also make it possible to handle multiple threads efficiently, which is essential for developing AR/VR applications.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is another area where Rust has found many applications. Rust is a fantastic candidate for constructing machine learning algorithms because to its efficiency and memory safety. Concurrency characteristics in Rust allow for the efficient handling of numerous threads, which is vital for designing high-performance machine learning systems. Rust’s memory safety also makes writing secure machine-learning programmes easier.

Gaming

Rust has also found many applications in the gaming industry. Rust’s performance and memory safety make it a good choice for designing games with low latency and high performance requirements.

Concurrency characteristics in Rust also allow for the efficient handling of numerous threads, which is vital when designing complicated game engines.

Network Programming

Rust’s low-level control and memory safety make it a great candidate for network application development. Concurrency capabilities of Rust allow it to handle numerous network connections efficiently. Rust’s memory safety also makes writing secure network code easier.

Ready to take your python programming skills to the next level? Sign up for a free demo today!

Pros & Cons of Using Rust

Rust offers several advantages over downsides. Let’s find out what they are.

Pros:

• Rust is appropriate for high-performance applications since it is memory economical and does not require trash collection or run time.
• Because of its ownership model and type system, Rust is memory and thread safe.
• Rust is a statically and highly typed programming language, which ensures that no code errors are caused by wrongly defined variables.
• Because of its cheap overhead, Rust is perfect for writing embedded programmes.
• The Rust community allows you to debate concerns and ideas with others, organise events and conferences, and access a variety of learning tools.
• Rust has extensive documentation.
• It has various features to help you be more productive. It provides, for example, a built-in package manager and build tool, editor support with useful features, and a compiler with informative error messages.
• Command line tools are available to help you operate more efficiently with the crates.io ecosystem.
• Rust enables the creation of software that is cross-platform.

Cons:

• Rust’s compile time is longer than that of other languages. At compile time, it conforms to the entire package or crate. As a result, compilation time may be extended.
• It takes longer to learn than other languages such as Python. To utilise it effectively, you should know at least one language. As a result, Rust is unsuitable for anyone learning to code for the first time.
• Monkey patching is not well supported in Rust.
• It is capable of producing larger binary files.

Experience the power of our python course with a free demo – Enroll now!

What is Python?

Python is a high-level, versatile, interpreted programming language renowned for its readability and simplicity. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python has gained immense popularity in various domains due to its ease of learning, clean syntax, and extensive libraries.

It emphasizes code readability and clear, concise syntax, making it an ideal language for beginners while remaining powerful enough to meet the needs of seasoned developers. Python supports multiple programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming styles, enabling flexibility in coding approaches.

Python: Versatility and Ease of Use

Python, on the other hand, is renowned for its adaptability and ease of use. Python reduces cognitive strain for developers by using a simple and clear syntax, allowing them to focus on problem solving rather than struggling with arcane syntax rules. Python’s large standard library and plethora of third-party packages speed up development, making it a good choice for web development, data analysis, scripting, and automation tasks.

However, because Python is dynamically typed, it can occasionally cause runtime issues that necessitate additional testing. Furthermore, Python’s Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) restricts its ability to fully utilise multi-core CPUs, potentially hurting CPU-bound application performance.

Community and Ecosystem:

Python has a large and mature ecosystem, with a diversified set of libraries and frameworks to meet a variety of purposes. Its huge community provides an abundance of resources for learning and problem solving.

Rust, despite being newer, has quickly garnered popularity. Its community is concerned with security, performance, and open-source contributions. Cargo, the Rust Package Manager, simplifies dependency management and promotes best practices.

Key Features of Python:

Open-Source Accessibility: Because Python is open-source, anyone can download and use it without any restrictions. Furthermore, the publicly available source code for Python can be altered by developers to suit their own needs.

Ease of Learning: Among programming languages, Python is very easy to learn and therefore more accessible to novices than other languages such as Java, C, C++, and JavaScript.

Object-Oriented Capabilities: Python is an object-oriented programming language that supports an organised approach to creating custom software by providing features like object encapsulation, object building and destruction, and the usage of classes.

Extensibility: Because of Python’s extensibility, developers may easily integrate Python code into C++ programmes and compile it without facing many difficulties, which makes integrating with existing systems easier.

Efficient Debugging: Python’s ability to execute code line by line makes debugging easier and takes less time, which helps developers find and fix issues more quickly.

Cross-Platform Portability: Python code is portable, which means that programmes built for one platform, like Windows, can operate on other platforms without requiring significant changes, increasing flexibility and cross-platform compatibility.

Applications of Python:

1. Web Development

Python can be used to create web apps. It offers libraries to handle many internet protocols, including Feedparser, beautifulSoup, HTML and XML, JSON, email processing, and requests. Instagram uses the Django web framework, which is written in Python. Among the numerous helpful frameworks that Python offers are the following ones:

• Use the Pyramid framework and Django for large applications.
• Bottle and Flask (Micro-framework)
• Django CMS (Advanced Content management) with Plone

2. Desktop GUI creation

Because Python has a module architecture and supports various Oss, you can use a Python module, such as PyQt4, PyQt5, WxPython, PyGtk, PySide, PyGUI, Tkinter, etc., or an effective text-processing tool or framework to construct desktop GUIs.

3. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are the new blacks of the technology domain. The development of these technologies has been overwhelming, and it has sent strides across different industries. The growing applications of AI and ML across the business spectrum puts forward a new wave of change that the industry is undergoing. While most of the tech discussion hang around AI and ML application, we also need to have a look at powerful programming languages like Python that backs the algorithms and coding instigating seamless functioning of AI and ML models.

4. Game Development

The construction of interactive games is made easier by the abundance of useful extensions (libraries) that come with Python. Two popular Python-based libraries used in game creation are PyGame and PySoy, the latter of which is a 3D game engine that supports Python 3. Many well-known video games, including Vega Strike, Civilization IV, Frets on Fire, World of Tanks, Battlefield 2, and Disney’s Toontown Online, are built using the Python programming language.

5. Software Development

The goal of Python apps and packages is to make software development easier. Python is a versatile programming language that can be used to create sophisticated desktop and web applications as well as applications involving scientific and numerical computing. Python is used by software developers as a support language for build control, testing, and management for this reason.

For example, SCons is specifically made for build control, Roundup and Trac are excellent for project management and bug tracking, while Buildbot and Apache Gump enable automated continuous compilation and testing.

Pros & Cons of Using Python

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits and drawbacks of utilising Python.

Pros:

• Python’s simple syntax makes it one of the easiest languages to learn. As a result, it has a lower learning curve and is more suited to novice developers than more sophisticated languages such as Rust or PHP.
• Python is a versatile language that is utilised in a variety of applications such as data web development, data science, machine learning, scripting, prototyping, test automation, and so on.
• Python’s vast standard library enables you to write less code for everything from simple numerical calculations to big data analytics tasks.
• Declaring variable types takes less time with dynamic typing.
• There are numerous resources on the internet for learning Python, such as tutorials, documentation, developer guides, and so on.
• There are numerous Python development tools available, such as Python-specific IDEs, code review tools, and so on.
• Allows for the creation of cross-platform software.
• Python is an interpreted language, which makes debugging easier. A large community support network allows you to get instant support for your difficulties and fix them more quickly.

Cons: 

• Python is inappropriate for high-speed applications because it is a slower language than other languages due to its line-by-line execution and dynamic typing.
• Python uses a lot of RAM because of features like flexible data types. As a result, it is unsuitable for memory-intensive applications.
• Dynamic typing can potentially result in eros in runtime that is undetectable during compilation.
• Because of its poor performance and large memory utilisation, it is inappropriate for mobile apps.
• Because Python is not as developed as many other languages, database access might be challenging.

Experience the power of our python course with a free demo – Enroll now!

Key Differences Between Rust vs. Python

Related Article: PHP vs. Python

Rust vs. Python: Making the Right Decision 

In general, Python is quicker to learn and offers a more straightforward development environment. It also enables greater flexibility for possibly larger projects because it has a larger community and a wider selection of resources. Python is useful in a wide range of fields, including enterprise programmes, scientific scripting, DevOps, online application development, and machine learning. Python’s popularity can be easily explained by its versatility and ease of usage.

If speed and security are your top concerns, then Rust ought to be your go-to choice. It is perfect for tasks like system development, file systems, gaming engine development, virtual reality (VR), and embedded integrations because of its memory safety and performance-oriented design. These choices demonstrate that Rust will only grow in popularity over time, and that as it develops, its documentation and extensibility will also get better.

Ready to take your python programming skills to the next level? Sign up for a free demo today!