Ownership
Ownership is a programming concept, most famously implemented in the Rust programming language, that governs how memory and resources are managed at compile time without a garbage collector. It enforces rules about which part of the code can access or modify data, preventing common bugs like data races, dangling pointers, and memory leaks. This system ensures memory safety and concurrency safety by tracking the lifetime and scope of variables.
Developers should learn ownership when working with systems programming, performance-critical applications, or languages like Rust where memory safety is paramount. It is essential for building reliable, secure software that avoids undefined behavior, especially in concurrent or embedded environments. Understanding ownership helps in writing efficient code that minimizes runtime overhead compared to garbage-collected languages.