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How is the Bun rewrite in Rust going? (lockwood.dev)

495 points by tomlockwood · 31 days ago · 385 comments on HN

Article summary

The article discusses the rewrite of the Bun project in Rust, which was reportedly completed in 11 days at a cost of $165,000 using Anthropic's AI tool. However, the author questions the claim, pointing out that the project still has no release tag and a large number of open pull requests. The author also notes that the cost of the rewrite may be higher than reported, considering the involvement of Anthropic employees and the ongoing CI/CD costs. The article raises concerns about the hype surrounding AI-powered development and the potential for inflated valuations.

Main themes

  • AI-powered development
  • Rust rewrite
  • Project costs
  • Hype and valuations
  • Code quality
  • LLM limitations

What commenters say

  • The use of AI in development can lead to non-idiomatic code that may not be maintainable or efficient in the long run.
  • The cost of using AI tools for development may be higher than initially reported, considering the need for human oversight and debugging.
  • The rewrite of Bun in Rust may not be as complete as claimed, with many open pull requests and no release tag yet.
  • The involvement of Anthropic employees in the project raises questions about the true cost and ownership of the code.
  • The use of LLMs in development can lead to a lack of understanding of the codebase and its maintenance.
  • The focus on using AI for development may distract from the importance of human engineers and their role in maintaining and improving the code.
  • The article's criticism of the Bun rewrite is unfair, as the project is still ongoing and the costs are justified by the potential benefits.
  • The use of AI in development can be beneficial, but it requires careful supervision and testing to ensure the quality of the code.