Glossary

Abstract Syntax Tree

An ‘abstract syntax tree’, or ‘AST’, is an intermediate representation of the structure of the program when the compiler is compiling it.

Arity

Arity refers to the number of arguments a function or operation takes. For example, (2, 3) and (4, 6) have arity 2, and(8, 2, 6) has arity 3.

Array

An array, sometimes also called a fixed-size array or an inline array, is a value describing a collection of elements, each selected by an index that can be computed at run time by the program. It occupies a contiguous region of memory.

Bound

Bounds are constraints on a type or trait. For example, if a bound is placed on the argument a function takes, types passed to that function must abide by that constraint.

Combinator

Combinators are higher-order functions that apply only functions and earlier defined combinators to provide a result from its arguments. They can be used to manage control flow in a modular fashion.

Dispatch

Dispatch is the mechanism to determine which specific version of code is actually run when it involves polymorphism. Two major forms of dispatch are static dispatch and dynamic dispatch. While Rust favors static dispatch, it also supports dynamic dispatch through a mechanism called ‘trait objects’.

Dynamically Sized Type

A dynamically sized type (DST) is a type without a statically known size or alignment.

Expression

An expression is a combination of values, constants, variables, operators and functions that evaluate to a single value, with or without side-effects.

For example, 2 + (3 * 4) is an expression that returns the value 14.

Initialized

A variable is initialized if it has been assigned a value and hasn't since been moved from. All other lvalues are assumed to be initialized. Only unsafe Rust can create such an lvalue without initializing it.

Prelude

Prelude, or The Rust Prelude, is a small collection of items - mostly traits - that are imported into very module of every crate. The traits in the prelude are pervasive.

Slice

A slice is dynamically-sized view into a contiguous sequence, written as [T].

It is often seen in its borrowed forms, either mutable or shared. The shared slice type is &[T], while the mutable slice type is &mut [T], where T represents the element type.

Statement

A statement is the smallest standalone element of a programming language that commands a computer to perform an action.

String literal

A string literal is a string stored directly in the final binary, and so will be valid for the 'static duration.

Its type is 'static duration borrowed string slice, &'static str.

String slice

A string slice is the most primitive string type in Rust, written as str. It is often seen in its borrowed forms, either mutable or shared. The shared string slice type is &str, while the mutable string slice type is &mut str.

Strings slices are always valid UTF-8.

Trait

A trait is a language item that is used for describing the functionalities a type must provide. It allow a type to make certain promises about its behavior.

Generic functions and generic structs can exploit traits to constrain, or bound, the types they accept.