stevedoria.net

In an effort to develop and maintain skills, I read the following books in the last three months:

• Gookin, Dan. Programmer’s Guide to nCurses
• Klabnik, Steve and Carol Nichols. The Rust Programming Language
• van Rossum, Guido. The Python Tutorial

Pi Configuration Procedures (on Raspberry Pi Zero W):

1. Modify /boot/config.txt, append the following as a separate line:
   dtoverlay=dwc2
2. Modify /boot/config.txt, comment out any lines containing otg_mode.
3. Modify /boot/cmdline.txt, add the following immediately after rootwait, surrounded by spaces:
   modules-load=dwc2,g_ether
4. Create an empty file called /boot/ssh.

Driver Installation Procedures (on Microsoft Windows 11):

1. Disable driver signature verification.
2. Download linux.inf file.
3. In Device Manager, under Ports, right-click on USB Serial Device (the one that appears when connecting the Pi to the computer’s USB port.
4. Click on Update Driver > Browse my computer for drivers > Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
5. Click on Have Disk… and browse to the folder with the downloaded linux.inf file. Click OK.
6. With “Show compatible hardware” ticked, “Linux USB Ethernet/RNDIS Gadget” should be an option. Select this entry and click Next.
7. Proceed with remainder of driver installation.

Connection Procedures (on Microsoft Windows 11)

1. Using SSH program, connect to Pi’s hostname with “.local” appended to it. For example:
   ssh myusername@myraspberrypi.local

アニソンが好きですが、この歌が一番大好きです。

このライブは楽しそうです。いい音だと思っています。いつかMongol800の演奏を見に行きたいです。陳腐ちんぷですか。

So, why Rust?

Ownership is Rust’s most unique feature and has deep implications for the rest of the language. It enables Rust to make memory safety guarantees without needing a garbage collector… (Klabnik)

Wedson Almeida Filho recommends adopting Rust for kernel development, declaring:

We feel that Rust is now ready to join C as a practical language for implementing the kernel. It can help us reduce the number of potential bugs and security vulnerabilities in privileged code while playing nicely with the core kernel and preserving its performance characteristics.

Reading about Rust and its “ownership” concept reminded me of C++’s move semantics, which were introduced in C++ by ISO/IEC 14882:2011. It is possible to implement C++ code that mimics Rust’s ownership concept, but this requires skill and effort similar to implementing inheritance and polymorphism in C. Furthermore, C++ code can continue to be implemented without the ownership concept, which is proving to be an effective approach to resource management and addressing a huge class of security vulnerabilities. C++ tools do not enforce the ownership concept, leaving software implementers without active support from compilers for adopting that concept.

Ownership is a core feature of Rust. All Rust programs are implemented around ownership, and compilers are implemented to enforce consistency with ownership rules. Ownership can be borrowed and it can be passed around. When an owner goes out of scope, resources are released. Ownership of a resource and who is responsible for their release is enforced by Rust. Explicit invocation of free() or operator delete is avoided, and this reduces a class of security vulnerabilities that are embodied by stale pointers and memory exhaustion. Python’s with statement and C#’s using statement are not needed, allowing resource ownership to be ergonomically returned by a function to its callers. Rust’s compiler is capable of determining when resources are released and when resources are used after they are released. Rust’s tools enforce the ownership concept. Ownership and resource management are the cornerstone of the Rust programming language.

The Rust programming language allows for implementing performant software, which does not need a virtual machine, explicit release of resources, and garbage collection for resource management. Being performant and rivaling C’s proximity to the hardware, Rust is a fine addition to an embedded software engineer’s toolbox.