# Introduction

## Participation

If you are interested in contributing to this book, check out the
[contribution guidelines](https://github.com/rust-unofficial/patterns/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md).

## Design patterns

When developing programs, we have to solve many problems.
A program can be viewed as a solution to a problem.
It can also be viewed as a collection of solutions to many different problems.
All of these solutions work together to solve a bigger problem.

## Design patterns in Rust

There are many problems that share the same form.
Due to the fact that Rust is not object-oriented design patterns vary with
respect to other object-oriented programming languages.
While the details are different, since they have the same form they can be
solved using the same fundamental methods:

- [Design patterns](./patterns/index.md) are methods to solve common problems
  when writing software.
- [Anti-patterns](./anti_patterns/index.md) are methods to solve these same
  common problems. However, while design patterns give us benefits,
  anti-patterns create more problems.
- [Idioms](./idioms/index.md) are guidelines to follow when coding.
  They are social norms of the community.
  You can break them, but if you do you should have a good reason for it.

TODO: Mention why Rust is a bit special - functional elements, type system,
borrow checker