Re:Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils
by DannoHung on Tuesday March 22, 2016 @06:35PM
(#11340474)
In the case of Rust I don't believe this is 100% true given C ABI compatibility. You could start rewriting in such a way that it is integrated with the existing code and slowly, but surely tease the C out of the system.
Re:Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils
by JulianMorrison on Tuesday March 22, 2016 @06:52PM
(#11340584)
It would for the longest time be a C program with a metastasizing wart of Rust hung off the side, impossible to get into, impossible to work with, debugging hell, compilation hell. The distros would weep.
Re:Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils
by pcwalton on Tuesday March 22, 2016 @07:01PM
(#11340632)
Programs written in multiple languages are not exactly a new thing. Every iOS and Mac app is one, just to name one example.
And Firefox has a good chance to become exactly what you describe with the weird cancer analogy--in fact, the nightly builds already are.
I figure it's one of the signs of programmer maturity, that you start to look askance at rewrites. So tempting, yet so rarely even finished let alone better.