FMitF: Track II: Educating Developers about Ownership in Rust

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

Rust is an important new programming language that enables programmers to build low-level systems in a way that is both fast and efficient, a combination that has traditionally been extremely difficult. However, using Rust requires programmers to understand the language's "ownership" mechanism, which many find daunting. The project's novelties are to create a strong understanding of the difficulties in learning it, create tools to improve understanding, and evaluate that these tools work. The project's impacts are an understanding of important programming language concepts, a collection of useful tools, and a collection of pedagogic materials. Concretely, the project has multiple phases. First, it examines StackOverflow postings to determine what troubles programmers seem to have. Next, it turns these into a concept inventory for ownership. Then, it creates visualization tools for understanding both the dynamic and static semantics of Rust. These are then deployed in a copy of a widely used Rust book. The project then assesses the impact of these interventions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.