We're excited to announce the first-ever Rust programming language event in Tallinn with more to come!
Rust might be a young language but there seems to be already plenty of excitement around it even here in Estonia—so come and meet others curious about Rust, or who are already working with it, work on your own Rust project(s), ask questions, become a Rustacean (a Rust programmer) and, most importantly, have fun!
Detailed information is available further below, but here is a TL;DR:
Everyone is welcome, regardless of their familiarity with Rust. It’s free of charge, organized community effort led through the Bay Area Tech Club non-profit organization. We’re offering pizza (with vegan and gluten-free options) and would like to avoid alcoholic drinks, but all interested parties can have an “afterparty” at a bar later. You can keep in touch with us on our official Matrix channel and call any of the numbers on the hackerspace building's doors if you're having trouble entering - one of the numbers is +37253624104 (Rasmus).
All Rust Tallinn events are governed by our Code of Conduct. We are kindly asking everyone to familiarize themselves with and abide by the rules set forth by the Code of Conduct so we can ensure a welcoming environment.
We’re always appreciative of donations and sponsorships to keep the events going.
A Hack'n'Learn is a type of a casual tech event where the attendees work on their own personal projects (or, why not open-source - and, in our case, Rust projects) on their laptops. In this environment, we can collaborate, ask for help, learn more about the language overall, and meet fellow Rustaceans.
Hacking is not necessarily like it's portrayed in the movies - it's more about tinkering and taking things apart to learn how they work and experimenting with them, and that's the essence of the terminology being used here. Such events have been previously held in many cities around the world as well.
In this sense, it is not exactly like the meetups you might be used to, as we haven't scheduled any presentations. We are keeping an open mind, though, so if you were interested in giving a short lighting talk about some Rust-y stuff that really excites you, just drop us a line.
You are strongly advised to bring your own laptop if possible, but there are some free laptops at the hackerspace specifically for this purpose that you could use, so don't worry if you don't have a laptop or can't bring one to the event!
Absolutely, yes! If you're interested in programming close to the metal (think microcontrollers, embedded systems) or systems engineering (game engines, browser engines, operating systems, web services (backend) and so much more) in general. If you would like to try out a more modern, less painful language to tackle any of these with, then this event (and Rust) is absolutely for you, even if you've never actually tried any of these things before.
If you are a systems developer and would like to know more, then Rust is a systems programming language much like C or C++, which isn't garbage collected either and has manual memory management as well. Unlike the aforementioned languages, in short, Rust offers memory and thread safety, has some features inspired by functional languages, and despite not being an object-oriented language, offers powerful generics and abstractions. Everyone is welcome, and we're striving to have fun, learn, tinker and help one another.
For a first Rust project, you could just start by checking out the resources on Rust's official website that also include tutorials with toy projects. If you're finding everything to be pretty confusing (don't worry - we've all been there), then check out these excellent, short video tutorials introducing Rust and its ownership and borrowing concepts.
While everyone at the Hack'n'Learn works on their own projects, we will have a couple experienced Rust programmers who are always more than happy to help people out, answer questions, or explain the more confusing or complex behaviors of the language/compiler!
We'll be offering vegan and gluten-free pizza alongside non-vegetarian (meat and cheese) pizzas. We'd like to have an alcohol-free event, but whoever is interested in an "afterparty" at a bar later can do so. You won't leave the event hungry, that's for sure.
The event is free of charge for everyone, and so we appreciate all the support we can get. We are a community effort led through the Bay Area Tech Club non-profit organization.
Rust Tallinn is organized by Elina Shakhnovich (@logicsoup on Twitter) and István Szmozsánszky (@slsoftworks on Twitter). Elina is a graphics and video game programmer co-developing a game completely written in Rust, with a background in embedded engineering and C++. István is an experienced globe-trotting Mozillian and co-organizer of RustFest, Europe's longest-running Rust conference.
We're always looking for sponsors to keep the events going and cover the cost of food, venue rent, etc. We're striving to be completely transparent regarding our finances and will provide relevant information on our website as we grow.
If you are a company interested in future-proofing your systems engineering practices, then sponsoring us is one of the best ways to start. Please contact us at rust@baytech.community to discuss the options.
Thank you! We're also always looking for co-organizers, so if you're interested in helping us out with that, do not hesitate to contact us about it either.
We have an official Matrix channel - it's kinda like IRC with bells and whistles. You can also send us an email.
The nature and frequency of future events is still to-be-determined, we are planning to announce our future plans soon after the first event - we definitely won't expect it to be our last. ;)
Our current location - the K-space Hackerspace - is indeed very fitting for a Hack'n'Learn. Although it isn't located in the Tallinn city center, but in the Tehnopol tech district in Mustamäe, it's easy to get there by bus or a trolleybus. Take the bus no. 23, 24A, or 11; or the trolleybus no. 3 to the "Raja" bus stop, which is right in front of the red hackerspace building ("Küberneetika maja") with a large parking lot in front of it.
For more information, click here to view it on the map and watch this video, which shows the building and its entrance doors (from 0:00 to 0:40). The front entrance (Küberneetika building entrance) might not be open after 18:00, but it's possible to use the elevator up to the 4th floor. The back entrance takes you straight to the meetup area. K-space is located on the 5th floor, a tiny flight of stairs after the 4th floor. Either way, you'd probably have to contact one of the hackerspace people by calling +37253624104 (Rasmus) or checking out the phone numbers on front and back doors.
If you're a wheelchair user, then, unfortunately, the current location isn't fully wheelchair-accessible, but we are actively looking for locations that allow us to welcome everyone who is interested in attending our events, so please get in touch.
Please note that Rust Tallinn has a Code of Conduct that also applies to this event. Please make sure you read, understand and abide by the rules of conduct so we can ensure it's a welcoming learning environment. https://berlincodeofconduct.org/