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It is a pity that you can't make an experimental commit on an experimental branch without igniting a fire of delirium through some people who -- if they were ab
by sarreph 5mo ago
It is a pity that you can't make an experimental commit on an experimental branch without igniting a fire of delirium through some people who -- if they were able to put their emotional response aside for a minute and could weigh this up on the basis of merit -- would probably agree with the motivations for researching this approach.
> if/how hard it’d be to get it to pass Bun’s test suite and be maintainable
Every month brings new opportunities to completely abstract the process of porting code with agents, all using linguistics. What an exciting time.
For those looking for a similarly interesting (and interestingly similar) example, see Cloudflare's port of Next.js[0], "vinext", from a couple of months ago. It had some teething problems at the start but I'm using it in a few production projects now with minimal issues.
[0] - https://github.com/cloudflare/vinext https://github.com/cloudflare/vinext
- SergeAx 5mo agoI am a topic starter, and I had no emotional response, was just being curious. Never expected it will land at HN #1. I specifically posted the link to the first commit and not to the whole branch, because currently the prompt is the most interesting part.
- Hikikomori 5mo agoThe title kinda set the tone for this post.
- magicmicah85 5mo agoThe title is "Bun is being ported from Zig to Rust". The docs/PORTING.MD starts with "Zig → Rust porting guide" I don't think the tone was the problem.
- mi_lk 5mo agoImaging title it "Bun is being ported from Zig to Rust in an experimental branch" though. Not enough drama with that
- SergeAx 5mo agoI couldn't use that title because I didn't know if it an experiment at the moment. Even now the correct title would be "Bun author says that he is entertaining the idea of porting it from Zig to Rust, creates an experimental branch".
- Hikikomori 5mo agoBut you also didn't know a port was happening, which the title implies.
- magicmicah85 5mo agoThe branch name is "claude/phase-a-port", there was zero indication this was an experiment until Jarred commented. The more accurate title might have simply been "there is a branch in the official repo of bun describing a port to rust from zig". No amount of soft titles would have prevented the discussion. People have their opinions about Bun, about Zig, about Rust and it's all going to come out in a discussion board.
- zozbot234 5mo ago> there was zero indication this was an experiment The goal of Phase A is a **draft** `.rs` next to the `.zig` that captures the logic faithfully — it does **not** need to compile. Phase B makes it compile crate-by-crate. I mean, it would be hard to spell it out any clearer than that! Code that fails to compile is just not very useful for real work.
- dspillett 5mo agoYes, but that would require people to read past the title. You can't get a proper knee-jerk first post in if you do that! Completely unfair to expect people to make that sacrifice/effort. [there was some sarcasm there, BTW, if anyone has a faulty detector that didn't pick up on it]
- magicmicah85 5mo ago
- punkbit 5mo agoAn original topic starter? I'm pretty sure that this was originally posted on X by someone else, as I commented there, and minutes after, it was copied and put here on HN with the twisted title; the original was more of a "question, surprise tone"
- SergeAx 5mo agoThis topic starter. I saw a post on Twitter in "for you" feed, verified it, found an interesting bit (rewriting prompt) and started a topic on HN. Like I said, I never expected it to hit #1.
- matsemann 5mo agoThat's not a very constructive, nor accurate, way of trying to dismiss all concerns around bun that has been raised.
- dspillett 5mo agoI think that was a very constructive comment about the unconstructive way people are shoe-horning other concerns about bun into this thread abut a specific aspect which itself turns out to be just an experiment that someone knee-jerk reacted to, despite several active threads already discussing those matters one of which only just fell off the front page. While the concerns many have about Bun's potential future direction are valid IMO, of the posts on this thread the one you are criticising is one of the more constructive.
- matsemann 5mo agoMaybe time to rethink your stance? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094745
- saagarjha 5mo agoThis is what it means to work on a popular project, unfortunately.
- qurren 5mo agoYou also don't have a duty to read or respond to the social media flames. Just do the work you want to do. If people get worked up about experimentation, that's their problem, not yours.
- saagarjha 5mo agoIt’s not your problem until it becomes your problem.
- qurren 5mo agoIt only becomes your problem if you choose it to be your problem.
- saagarjha 5mo agoThat is not how these things usually work.
- qurren 5mo agoExactly. Usually is most people. You can choose to deviate. You can delete your social media accounts and just keep working on what you want to, for one. Nobody is forcing you to use social media.
- perching_aix 5mo agoI'm mostly on board with what you're saying, but under such an interpretation of "forcing", people are never truly forced into anything. That puts it in fundamental conflict with the very existence of the word, i.e. renders it meaningless. That said, I did also walk away from most mainstream platforms already, so it's not like I disapprove of the message necessarily. I did find it regrettable that the calculus worked out that way though, and I don't find it reasonable to deny that there is / was a calculus. You do give up on things that are not just the assholes. I'd definitely classify that as a force. But maybe I'm just missing that this was supposed to be inspirational rather than literal, and mistook your words. I don't know.
- desdenova 5mo agoThe fact someone who works on Bun is willing to create and even push a branch generated by a stochastic parrot is very telling of the direction the project is going. Doesn't matter if it's "experimental", it's a dumb experiment that shouldn't exist.
- delfinom 5mo agoWhy are you treating branches as if they are holy? This is all OSS, people work on this in their free time, git is got and people can use branches as they like to experiment and share their experiments with others. If you don't like the code, don't use it you damn leech.
- unethical_ban 5mo agoUnderplaying AI, overselling what an experimental branch is, and suggesting it's representative of the entire project, all while suggesting people shouldn't even consider new tools and methodologies. Where to start.
- gjvc 5mo agoDoesn't matter if it's "experimental", it's a dumb experiment that shouldn't exist. Do you think the same about bitcoin? Where do you draw the line as to what programs are allowed to be written?
- skywhopper 5mo agoIt’s annoying for the team members I suppose, but to be fair, if you’re working on a high-profile open source project, owned by one of the most hyped companies in the world, and your branches are public, it’s probably a good idea to be clear in the branch naming and supplemental files if you’re just “experimenting”. By working in public on a popular open source project, you are communicating intent and purpose to your users and the general public through your commit messages, branch names, and documentation. You’ll save yourself a lot of grief if you act accordingly.