16334e508e
r? @steveklabnik
819 B
819 B
% Glossary
Not every Rustacean has a background in systems programming, nor in computer science, so we've added explanations of terms that might be unfamiliar.
Arity
Arity refers to the number of arguments a function or operation takes.
let x = (2, 3);
let y = (4, 6);
let z = (8, 2, 6);
In the example above x
and y
have arity 2. z
has arity 3.
Abstract Syntax Tree
When a compiler is compiling your program, it does a number of different
things. One of the things that it does is turn the text of your program into an
‘abstract syntax tree’, or ‘AST’. This tree is a representation of the
structure of your program. For example, 2 + 3
can be turned into a tree:
+
/ \
2 3
And 2 + (3 * 4)
would look like this:
+
/ \
2 *
/ \
3 4