These ports make me question the creators a little. They chose the wrong language to begin with, and then used an LLM to try to fix their mistake.
Port React Compiler to Rust
91–100 of 128 posts
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#92If this works and passes all of the tests, then it seems like a done deal to me. LLMs are just too good at doing ports where they have a rigorous automated test suite or oracle to compare against. They're oddly bad at following instructions like "port this mechanically, exactly" - worse than a human for sure - but they seem to do a great job of sitting there and comparing results to find bugs for hours and hours. It'…
>If this works and passes all of the tests
Only if the existing tests were actually useful in what they tested and covered.
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> LLMs lift the barrier of entry for Rust programming I think you actually meant "lower the barrier" (which would make it easier to pass the barrier, while lifting it makes it harder)?
This depends whether you have one of those barriers made of bollards that raise out of the ground (expensive, hard to retrofit on an existing parking structure), or the kind where an arm lowers across the road (cheap, trivial to retrofit)
I think such barriers are usually considered permanent and must always be overcome. You get over a barrier. So it is more like a wall or hurdle. In the metaphors of difficulty it is assumed there will always be some residual difficulty so there will still be a barrier, but one that is easier to get over, so it is replaced with a lower one.
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#94It's quite frightening to see how an enormous 120KLOC pull request gets merged at once with very little public discussion or coverage by the devs after just 3 months (which IMO is very little time in relation to the amount of code). There used to be extensive RFCs and series of conference talks long preceding changes this big, e.g. React Fiber. I support wholeheartedly the move to AOT-compiled languages but it looks…
Seems like all the "best practices" that were preached from these engineers for years are just disregarded and thrown out of the window with this reckless use of LLMs on high profile project.
Just creating permanent cognitive debt for everyone else with no-one else understanding what the code is doing.
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#95Interesting how LLMs are possibly putting an end to the era where we were increasingly trading off machine performance for developer productivity.
This is a great point, previously the tradeoff was build in python in 2 weeks versus 2 months and even if your app performance is worse you built it faster and maintain it more easily. Now I am wondering, for all the devs who do not have experience in Rust, can they still maintain the code when the usage limits get hit? Since there is an automated test suite and easily verifiable results, this is a good area where yo…
Honestly it is a moot point. The benefit of languages like Python compare to Rust still hold. Algorithmic complexity rules the roost. For the hot path, write a C extension that is rigorously tested. Python you can iterate much faster same as any scripting language.
The AI can iterate faster in Python too, guaranteed, because you don’t have any compile time.
Also, this is how AIs already get stuff done: they write SCRIPTS to perform tasks in a sandbox with tool calls. This is the future, dynamic languages, not using static languages.
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#96Interesting how LLMs are possibly putting an end to the era where we were increasingly trading off machine performance for developer productivity.
This is a great point, previously the tradeoff was build in python in 2 weeks versus 2 months and even if your app performance is worse you built it faster and maintain it more easily. Now I am wondering, for all the devs who do not have experience in Rust, can they still maintain the code when the usage limits get hit? Since there is an automated test suite and easily verifiable results, this is a good area where yo…
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Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#97It's quite frightening to see how an enormous 120KLOC pull request gets merged at once with very little public discussion or coverage by the devs after just 3 months (which IMO is very little time in relation to the amount of code). There used to be extensive RFCs and series of conference talks long preceding changes this big, e.g. React Fiber. I support wholeheartedly the move to AOT-compiled languages but it looks…
Seems like all the "best practices" that were preached from these engineers for years are just disregarded and thrown out of the window with this reckless use of LLMs on high profile project. Just creating permanent cognitive debt for everyone else with no-one else understanding what the code is doing.
The cognitive debt is by design. Now everyone must use an LLM to maintain the codebase, because it's beyond any single human's capacity for understanding.
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#98And the great era of rewriting in Rust has begun (again).
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
While this is true, the fact that it is Rust provides a much greater level of confidence than if it was Python or something.
Confidence about what? That it works properly? Hopefully? Why don’t you read the 120k lines of code and tell us all how it works.
i feel like ppl have magical beliefs about type systems. just because it's _probably_ (did it use unsafe?) memory-safe doesn't mean it does what you want it to do
Re: Port React Compiler to Rust
#100rewrite to rust using AI sound like meme now.
Soon: Microsoft announces entire TypeScript language ported to Rust using LLM, with a 1M LoC merged after a week of intense vibe coding. And nobody would be surprised.
The day after, Microsoft announces the depreciation of the TS compilers as all programs get written in rust with IA from now on.