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second-edition/nostarch/foreword.md

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+# Foreword
+
+It wasn’t always so clear, but the Rust programming language is fundamentally
+about *empowerment*: no matter what kind of code you are writing now, Rust
+empowers you to reach farther, to program with confidence in a wider variety of
+domains than you did before.
+
+Take, for example, “systems-level” work that deals with low-level details of
+memory management, data representation, and concurrency. Traditionally, this
+realm of programming is seen as arcane, accessible only to a select few who
+have devoted the necessary years learning to avoid its infamous pitfalls. And
+even those who practice it do so with caution, lest their code be open to
+exploits, crashes, or corruption.
+
+Rust breaks down these barriers by eliminating the old pitfalls and providing a
+friendly, polished set of tools to help you along the way. Programmers who need
+to “dip down” into lower-level control can do so with Rust, without taking on
+the customary risk of crashes or security holes, and without having to learn
+the fine points of a fickle toolchain. Better yet, the language is designed to
+guide you naturally towards reliable code that is efficient in terms of speed
+and memory usage.
+
+Programmers who are already working with low-level code can use Rust to raise
+their ambitions. For example, introducing parallelism in Rust is a relatively
+low-risk operation: the compiler will catch the classical mistakes for you. And
+you can tackle more aggressive optimizations in your code with the confidence
+that you won’t accidentally introduce crashes or exploits.
+
+But Rust isn’t limited to low-level systems programming. It’s expressive and
+ergonomic enough to make CLI apps, web servers, and many other kinds of code
+quite pleasant to write — you’ll find simple examples of both later in the
+book. Working with Rust allows you to build skills that transfer from one
+domain to another; you can learn Rust by writing a web app, then apply those
+same skills to target your Raspberry Pi.
+
+This book fully embraces the potential of Rust to empower its users. It’s a
+friendly and approachable text intended to help you level up not just your
+knowledge of Rust, but also your reach and confidence as a programmer in
+general. So dive in, get ready to learn—and welcome to the Rust community!
+
+— Nicholas Matsakis and Aaron Turon