Thoughts on Patterns

[aturon]

As it currently stands, the Patterns section feels like it has a quite different style from the rest of the book. It feels much more "Comprehensive Reference" rather than "Friendly guide to the most vital things for a new Rustacean to learn."

We should think carefully about the most important details about patterns that people need to know at this juncture, and consider moving the rest of this content to a later "Advanced patterns" section (which we can work out a good place for).

Alternatively, we had discussed having an explicit marker for "advanced" sections you can skip on a first read, and perhaps we could mark this one that way?

[steveklabnik]

That's possible. In general, we've been trying to fight the "x and advanced x" ... well, pattern, in chapters. Hrm.

[aturon]

Yeah, it's not ideal. I guess TLDR, my feeling is that we don't want people to feel like they need to get through all of this material on their way to other things -- it's slick, but not essential. So whatever way we can find to make sure readers don't get blocked on it.