Static Guarantees

Rust’s type system prevents data races at compile time (see Send and Sync traits). The type system can also be used to check other properties at compile time; reducing the need for runtime checks in some cases.

When applied to embedded programs these static checks can be used, for example, to enforce that configuration of I/O interfaces is done properly. For instance, one can design an API where it is only possible to initialize a serial interface by first configuring the pins that will be used by the interface.

One can also statically check that operations, like setting a pin low, can only be performed on correctly configured peripherals. For example, trying to change the output state of a pin configured in floating input mode would raise a compile error.

And, as seen in the previous chapter, the concept of ownership can be applied to peripherals to ensure that only certain parts of a program can modify a peripheral. This access control makes software easier to reason about compared to the alternative of treating peripherals as global mutable state.