GitHub Copilot is now written entirely in Rust, with AI agents doing most of the porting work.
The migration cost about $120,000 in AI token usage plus about three weeks of a developer's time.
The effort updated the runtime module-by-module until the job was completed, spanning over 135 releases across a 14.5-week time period.
430,000 lines of TypeScript were converted into 800,000 lines of Rust.
$120k to port 430,000 loc seems quite expensive. That's dozens of cents per line of code, and equivalent to the all-in cost of a senior engineer in London for a year.
Especially expensive when you take into account the amount of that code which must have been boilerplate & meta-code in nature, meaning it should have been straightforward to move.
> $120k ... equivalent to the all-in cost of a senior engineer in London for a year.
The most shocking thing I've read in this entire thread. Are SWE salaries really that low across the pond? That's entry level in the US. So 90k GBP a year all in, including benefits, employer-paid taxes, seat licenses, hardware, furniture, HR? So what's the after-tax takehome for someone senior enough to convert an enterprise codebase to a new language over one year?
antonmks · · focus · HN ↗
OtherShrezzing · · focus · HN ↗
Especially expensive when you take into account the amount of that code which must have been boilerplate & meta-code in nature, meaning it should have been straightforward to move.
jubilanti · · focus · HN ↗
The most shocking thing I've read in this entire thread. Are SWE salaries really that low across the pond? That's entry level in the US. So 90k GBP a year all in, including benefits, employer-paid taxes, seat licenses, hardware, furniture, HR? So what's the after-tax takehome for someone senior enough to convert an enterprise codebase to a new language over one year?