Rustconf 2016 – What was cool and what surprised me(agildata.com)

138 pointsby andygrovevor 10 Jahren35 comments

Rustconf 2016 – What was cool and what surprised me

http://www.agildata.com/rustconf-2016-what-was-cool-and-what-surprised-me/

15 comments

I was one of the presenters at RustConf this year. Despite being a new conference, the organizers did incredibly well; everything went as smoothly as any of the top tier of Open Source conferences. And of all the Open Source conferences I've been to, I found RustConf by far the most welcoming and energizing; great reflection on both the Rust community and the RustConf organizers.

I've found this about Rust in general: despite being a very new community, it manages to come across as quite mature and established in many ways. For instance, the language's stability-marking infrastructure allows experimentation with new language features without requiring stable applications to build with a nightly compiler because key dependencies want nightly features. Many of the mistakes and missteps that I've seen in new communities, as they rediscover problems from other communities, seem to have been anticipated and avoided in the Rust community.

RustConf was a reflection of that; despite being the first RustConf, it went as smoothly as any established conference that's been running for years.

bluejekyllvor 10 Jahren

Have you posted you content online? It was an excellent talk. Nice job!

JoshTriplettvor 10 Jahren

> Have you posted you content online?

The video should go up soon. I haven't posted the slides anywhere, but I should fix that.

Ideally, I'd love to see all the slides posted on rustconf.com linked from the talks.

> It was an excellent talk. Nice job!

Thanks!

raphlinusvor 10 Jahren

I was also there as one of the presenters, and concur, it was a great experience. The strength of the community is absolutely one of the threads that ran throughout the conference. I've been involved in open source a long a long time and had sadly revised my expectations downward, but Rust is going a long way towards restoring my confidence.

Kudos and thanks to the organizers!

bluejekyllvor 10 Jahren

There was something Julia Evans said at the end that really struck me as the key to Rust (I can't quote it)

The language gives you the security to try something new, convinces you that a mere mortal (as opposed to a C expert) can write systems level programs without fear. This is an amazing feature of the language.

It's democratizing what used to be exclusive to a low level community.

mshenfieldvor 10 Jahren

Obligatory links to talk and HN comments:

http://jvns.ca/blog/2016/09/11/rustconf-keynote/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12477211

kibwenvor 10 Jahren

For those interested in more Rust conferences, RustFest is September 17-18 in Berlin (no idea if tickets are still available) and Rust Belt Rust is October 27-28 in Pittsburgh (tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rust-belt-rust-conference-regis... ). Yours truly is giving one of the beginner tutorials at the latter, and I'll be handing out custom-machined rusty metal doodads to my attendees. :)

llogiqvor 10 Jahren

I'd really love to be there. My third child will probably be about 3 or 4 weeks old by that time, so I at least have good reason to miss out.

Xylakantvor 10 Jahren

Rustfest still has a few tickets left for sale from the late-bird batch.

colemickensvor 10 Jahren

I haven't been to many tech conferences, but RustConf was hands down the best I've been to. Classy group of people. Smart, entertaining talks. I can't recommend it enough. There's no doubt in my mind that the quality and diversity of speakers, content, attendees and general atmosphere was due to community that has been curated. And I think that curation has been very intentional and has paid off. It was repeated numerous times that the Rust community is helpful and inviting... including IRC.

(Thanks Steve, I think you're a powerful force in shaping the awesome, welcoming tone in the Rust community)

solarengineervor 10 Jahren

Is the webpage loading for anyone else? I'm being sent the Wordpress PHP code!

amlutovor 10 Jahren

Fixed now.

amlutovor 10 Jahren

I have the same problem. Oddly, even using archive.org sends me php code.

captaincrowbarvor 10 Jahren

Me three. Tried it on Chrome/Windows and Safari/Mac, same breakage.

Ar-Curunirvor 10 Jahren

Same. Oh well.

eyelidlessnessvor 10 Jahren

If only they'd written it in Rust...

andygrovevor 10 Jahren

Web site is down ... too much love for Rust :-)

We're working on it ... check back soon!

vatotemkingvor 10 Jahren

Rust is an awesome community. They are patient and helpful to newbies. As oppose to the 2 other communities i know of, the rust community can handle criticisms maturely. Its so refreshing. Cheers to rust!

tedmielczarekvor 10 Jahren

I don't attend many conferences, but I've been to a few and the quality of the speakers at RustConf was above and beyond any I've ever seen. Kudos to everyone that organized the event and spoke at it, it was a great experience!

pegasos1vor 10 Jahren

Agreed with my fellow co-speakers. It was humbling to be surround by such brilliant people. But it was also so inspiring to be a part of a community that takes pride in welcoming and empowering every developer, regardless of background.

[deleted]vor 10 Jahren

__pid_tvor 10 Jahren

(2)

jeswinvor 10 Jahren

I apologize for being harsh here. But if you're submitting your own articles to HN, I think it might make sense for it to not read like an ad for your company. There is nothing technical in the article, not even links.

klausavor 10 Jahren

I don't understand where the assumption that there must be something 'technical' in the post to 'deserve' a place on HN came from, but it's wrong.

bluejekyllvor 10 Jahren

Agree. Even if it is promoting their own company, this is a great example of someone using new technology to profit.

I get excited when I see this, even if I don't learn anything from the content.

steveklabnikvor 10 Jahren

All talks were recorded, we'll have them up at some point.

klocksibvor 10 Jahren

Is there a youtube channel or confreaks we can subscribe to so we can watch them when available?

steveklabnikvor 10 Jahren

I am 99% sure that it was confreaks who did the recordings, but I'm not sure if there's something you can subscribe to. They'll be tweeted from @rustlang and @rustconf for sure as well as posted to the users' forum, and I can't imagine that /r/rust won't pick them up.

klocksibvor 10 Jahren

Perfect, thanks!

adelarsqvor 10 Jahren

Actually I'm creating a website for things like this for Rust. Will be available in a few weeks =)

Xylakantvor 10 Jahren

Let me use the opportunity to advertise the rustfest, Europes first rust conference in Berlin, this upcoming weekend.

https://rustfest.eu

(I'm not part of the orga team, but affiliated)

pohlvor 10 Jahren

I was fortunate to be able to attend. Sometimes I feel like I'm just not built for conferences: I prefer solitude, and people usually go to conferences to confer. That said, this was an exceptional group of people to be among: smart, friendly, helpful, passionate, and accepting. I know it's been said before: the rust community at this stage of its evolution gets this right.

I also attended the beginner and intermediate training on Friday, and I feel like this pushed me over the hump. Thank you, Steve and Aaron, for presenting the material so well.

I even attended the tokio hackathon on Friday night to push myself out of my comfort zone. I wasn't able to contribute anything that night, but I spent some time troubleshooting a build problem in the tokio-line project, just for the sake of learning.

I would recommend attending next year if you get the opportunity.

jimktrains2vor 10 Jahren

> That said, this was an exceptional group of people to be among: smart, friendly, helpful, passionate, and accepting. I know it's been said before: the rust community at this stage of its evolution gets this right.

I wasn't at the conference, but I've seen the same thing online. I wonder if it's because we've all been humbled by the borrow checker _constantly_ it seems.

nnethercotevor 10 Jahren

I'm pretty sure it's because Graydon established and enforced a positive culture from the very start -- backed up by a good Code of Conduct -- and everyone since has continued to do that.

[deleted]vor 10 Jahren