I've found the Rust compiler to provide very useful messages. That said, it does take a certain amount of experience in the language before you grok the terminology and appropriate remedies to overcome some compiler errors. As a beginner, I'd typically open about 5-10 different documentation, blog post, SO and tutorial pages to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. Once I understood the underlying concept, I could go back and understand what the compiler message was telling me, as plain as day. After awhile, I had a strong enough understanding of the borrow checker that I could usually interpret the compiler error messages in a pretty straightforward fashion. But it takes time if you're coming from a non C/C++ language!
If you're learning Rust, I would recommend tracing back every compiler error you encounter to this page [1] to see some other examples and resolutions (if the compiler's suggestions don't make it clear as to what to do). It's the most underrated page in the entire Rust documentation set, and could be the launch point for a lot of teaching and learning. Read the book to start, certainly (and the revisions Steve Klabnik has been making are very, very good), but that error index page is very valuable for the day to day issues.
I love the extended errors. Note that you can just use `rustc --explain <error code>` without opening a web page, but of course it won't be formatted then.
> But it takes time if you're coming from a non C/C++ language!
Ultimately there's little substitute to learning the concepts behind the language :) Error-driven-development is fun, and quite useful once you know the language, but if used as the only way to learn the language it can be problematic. That said, I enjoy using errors to explain Rust concepts -- as long as you explain them. If a new user is hit with a steaming pile of errors you can't really expect them to understand it directly.
I have talked with a lot of folks coming from a non-systemsy background, and sort of have an idea of the things that get confusing (I once had similar problems when learning C++). I'm planning a blog post series (no ETA, pretty swamped with other work :/ ) that teaches both Rust (specifically, the safety bits like the borrow checker) and what's going on under the hood (regarding memory, the stack/heap, etc) using each as a crutch to explain the other in a leapfrog way, to introduce the language and low-level programming to folks coming from languages like JS.
If you're learning Rust, I would recommend tracing back every compiler error you encounter to this page [1] to see some other examples and resolutions (if the compiler's suggestions don't make it clear as to what to do). It's the most underrated page in the entire Rust documentation set, and could be the launch point for a lot of teaching and learning. Read the book to start, certainly (and the revisions Steve Klabnik has been making are very, very good), but that error index page is very valuable for the day to day issues.
Rust rewards gumption [2] and perseverance.
[1] https://doc.rust-lang.org/error-index.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumption_trap