From 9776cb75938ba5150ba0f44b255ecb2729253599 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: LukeMathWalker <20745048+LukeMathWalker@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 14 May 2024 14:18:14 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Improve landing page.

---
 book/src/01_intro/00_welcome.md | 76 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 70 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/book/src/01_intro/00_welcome.md b/book/src/01_intro/00_welcome.md
index a26b49a..e4ad231 100644
--- a/book/src/01_intro/00_welcome.md
+++ b/book/src/01_intro/00_welcome.md
@@ -2,21 +2,69 @@
 
 Welcome to **"100 Exercises To Learn Rust"**!  
 
-This course will teach you Rust's core concepts, one exercise at a time. 
-In roughly 100 exercises, you'll go from knowing nothing about Rust to feeling productive on your own.  
+This course will teach you Rust's core concepts, one exercise at a time.  
+You'll learn about Rust's syntax, its type system, its standard library, and its ecosystem.
+
+We don't assume any prior knowledge of Rust, but we assume you know at least
+another programming language.  
+We also don't assume any prior knowledge of systems programming or memory management. Those
+topics will be covered in the course.
+
+In other words, we'll be starting from scratch!  
+You'll build up your Rust knowledge in small, manageable steps.
+By the end of the course, you will have solved ~100 exercises, enough to
+feel comfortable working on small to medium-sized Rust projects.
+
+## Methodology
+
+This course is based on the "learn by doing" principle.  
+It has been designed to be interactive and hands-on. 
+
+[Mainmatter](https://mainmatter.com/rust-consulting/) developed this course
+to be delivered in a classroom setting, over 4 days: each attendee advances 
+through the lessons at their own pace, with an experienced instructor providing 
+guidance, answering questions and diving deeper into the topics as needed.  
+If you're interested in attending one of our training sessions, or if you'd like to
+bring this course to your company, please [get in touch](https://mainmatter.com/contact/).
+
+You can also follow the course on your own, but we recommend you find a friend or 
+a mentor to help you along the way should you get stuck.
 
 ## Structure
 
-Each section in this course introduces a new concept or feature of the Rust language.  
+On the left side of the screen, you can see that the course is divided into sections.
+Each section introduces a new concept or feature of the Rust language.  
 To verify your understanding, each section is paired with an exercise that you need to solve. 
 
-Each exercise is structured as a Rust package, located in the `exercises` folder.
+You can find the exercises in the 
+[companion GitHub repository](https://github.com/mainmatter/100-exercises-to-learn-rust).  
+Before starting the course, make sure to clone the repository to your local machine:
+
+```bash
+# If you have an SSH key set up with GitHub
+git clone git@github.com:mainmatter/100-exercises-to-learn-rust.git
+# Otherwise, use the HTTPS URL:
+#
+#   git clone https://github.com/mainmatter/100-exercises-to-learn-rust.git
+```
+
+We also recommend you work on a branch, so you can easily track your progress and pull
+in updates from the main repository, if needed:
+
+```bash
+cd 100-exercises-to-learn-rust
+git checkout -b my-solutions
+```
+
+All exercises are located in the `exercises` folder.
+Each exercise is structured as a Rust package.
 The package contains the exercise itself, instructions on what to do (in `src/lib.rs`), and a test suite to 
 automatically verify your solution.
 
 ### `wr`, the workshop runner
 
-To navigate through the course, you will be using the `wr` CLI (short for "workshop runner").  
+To verify your solutions, we've provided a tool that will guide you through the course.
+It is the `wr` CLI (short for "workshop runner"). 
 Install it with:
 
 ```bash
@@ -33,8 +81,24 @@ wr
 `wr` will verify the solution to the current exercise.  
 Don't move on to the next section until you've solved the exercise for the current one.  
 
+> We recommend committing your solutions to Git as you progress through the course, 
+> so you can easily track your progress and "restart" from a known point if needed.
+> 
+> You can find solutions to all exercises in the `solutions` branch of the GitHub repository.
+
 Enjoy the course!
 
 ## References
 
-- The exercise for this section is located in `exercises/01_intro/00_welcome`
\ No newline at end of file
+- The exercise for this section is located in `exercises/01_intro/00_welcome`
+
+## Author
+
+This course was written by [Luca Palmieri](https://www.lpalmieri.com/), Principal Engineering
+Consultant at [Mainmatter](https://mainmatter.com/rust-consulting/).  
+Luca has been working with Rust since 2018, initially at TrueLayer and then at AWS.  
+Luca is the author of ["Zero to Production in Rust"](https://zero2prod.com), 
+the go-to resource for learning how to build backend applications in Rust.  
+He is also the author and maintainer of a variety of open-source Rust projects, including
+[`cargo-chef`](https://github.com/LukeMathWalker/cargo-chef),
+[Pavex](https://pavex.dev) and [`wiremock`](https://github.com/LukeMathWalker/wiremock-rs).
\ No newline at end of file
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