“DARPA suggests turning old C code automatically into Rust – using AI, of course”

[Lynn McGuire]

“DARPA suggests turning old C code automatically into Rust – using AI,
of course”
https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/03/darpa_c_to_rust/

“To accelerate the transition to memory safe programming languages, the
US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is driving the
development of TRACTOR, a programmatic code conversion vehicle.”

“The term stands for TRanslating All C TO Rust. It's a DARPA project
that aims to develop machine-learning tools that can automate the
conversion of legacy C code into Rust.”

I have never used a code translator that converted 100% of the code
properly.

Lynn

[Chris M. Thomasson]

Post by Lynn McGuire
“DARPA suggests turning old C code automatically into Rust – using AI,
of course”
   https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/03/darpa_c_to_rust/
“To accelerate the transition to memory safe programming languages, the
US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is driving the
development of TRACTOR, a programmatic code conversion vehicle.”
“The term stands for TRanslating All C TO Rust. It's a DARPA project
that aims to develop machine-learning tools that can automate the
conversion of legacy C code into Rust.”
I have never used a code translator that converted 100% of the code
properly.

Yeah. Who is going to unit test it? The AI? Sure. That's going to be fun.

[John McCue]

Post by Chris M. Thomasson

Post by Lynn McGuire
“DARPA suggests turning old C code automatically into Rust – using AI,
of course”
   https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/03/darpa_c_to_rust/

<snip>

Post by Chris M. Thomasson
Yeah. Who is going to unit test it? The AI? Sure. That's going to be fun.

I came here to say the same, plus you know no Commercial
Company will ever do this for "better" security. The cost
in testing alone will be exorbitant.

[pozz]

Post by Lynn McGuire
“DARPA suggests turning old C code automatically into Rust – using AI,
of course”
   https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/03/darpa_c_to_rust/
“To accelerate the transition to memory safe programming languages, the
US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is driving the
development of TRACTOR, a programmatic code conversion vehicle.”
“The term stands for TRanslating All C TO Rust. It's a DARPA project
that aims to develop machine-learning tools that can automate the
conversion of legacy C code into Rust.”
I have never used a code translator that converted 100% of the code
properly.

Is it worth learning Rust language? Will Rust be the language that
replace C?

[Otto J. Makela]

Post by pozz
Is it worth learning Rust language? Will Rust be the language that
replace C?

Rust has rather different internal logic from C (and C++),
places some rather harsh constraints on how memory is used,
but the payoff of these changes seems to be pretty good.

What say the folks at alt.comp.lang.rust?

Followup-to: alt.comp.lang.rust

[Paul]

“DARPA suggests turning old C code automatically into Rust – using AI, of course”
   https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/03/darpa_c_to_rust/
“To accelerate the transition to memory safe programming languages, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is driving the development of TRACTOR, a programmatic code conversion vehicle.”
“The term stands for TRanslating All C TO Rust. It's a DARPA project that aims to develop machine-learning tools that can automate the conversion of legacy C code into Rust.”
I have never used a code translator that converted 100% of the code properly.
Lynn

This slide, captures what a participant feels about the idea.

Loading Image...

( https://github.com/immunant/c2rust )

That's why the slide consists of a "printf() to println:() translator".

Now, think of all the reasons they believe that to be the case.

The sum total of the quality of the input, determines the output.
An AI will *never* ask you for more information. It runs with what
it has. It does not care whether the result is relevant or not.
And just try and micro-manage one, and see what happens.

Paul

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Lynn McGuire
I have never used a code translator that converted 100% of the code
properly.

Some of that C code might itself have originated from older code in JOVIAL
or NELIAC or something else that most folks in this group have never heard
of. They probably used automatic translation techniques for some of it, to
move it to Ada or C or whatever in the first place.

In other words, it’s very likely they’ve been down this road before, it’s
just the details (the languages involved, the translation techniques
available) have evolved a bit.

(Was there mention of moving the Ada code to some newer language? I
thought not. Just the C code, then.)