Microsoft wants to replace its entire C and C++ codebase • The Register
Microsoft wants to translate its codebase to Rust, and is hiring people to make it happen.
“My goal is to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030,” Microsoft distinguished engineer Galen Hunt wrote in a recent LinkedIn post.
“Our strategy is to combine AI and Algorithms to rewrite Microsoft’s largest codebases,” he added. “Our North Star is ‘1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code.’”
Hunt’s post mentions a job ad for a Principal Software Engineer who will be expected to work on the tools Microsoft is building to pull this off.
“The purpose of this … role is to help us evolve and augment our infrastructure to enable translating Microsoft’s largest C and C++ systems to Rust,” Hunt wrote.
Microsoft has already built some tools to make the move.
“We’ve built a powerful code processing infrastructure,” Hunt wrote. “Our algorithmic infrastructure creates a scalable graph over source code at scale. Our AI processing infrastructure then enables us to apply AI agents, guided by algorithms, to make code modifications at scale.”
Whoever gets the job will work within Microsoft’s Future of Scalable Software Engineering group, a team Hunt says has a mission to “build capabilities to allow Microsoft and our customers to eliminate technical debt at scale.”
“We pioneer new tools and techniques with internal customers and partners, and then work with other product groups to deploy those capabilities at scale across Microsoft and across the industry,” he wrote.
Unlike C and C++, Rust is a memory-safe language, meaning it uses automated memory management to avoid out-of-bounds reads and writes, and use-after-free errors, as both offer attackers a chance to control devices. In recent years, governments have called for universal adoption of memory-safe languages – and especially Rust – to improve software security.
Microsoft has also called for greater use of Rust. In 2022, the CTO of the company’s Azure cloud called Rust to become the default language for new projects. Microsoft scientists have worked on a tool that automatically converts some C code to Rust.
The software behemoth has also created tools to help developers write Windows drivers using Rust.
Microsoft offers a vast array of products. The site MSportals.io lists over 500 active online portals for managing Microsoft products! The company also has a huge internal IT estate.
The effort required to re-write all that must surely be beyond enormous. It will doubtless surface huge numbers of edge cases that automation can’t address.
If you’re brave enough to want to make a contribution, the job Hunt mentions requires you to work three days a week in Microsoft’s Redmond office and pays between $139,900 and $274,800 a year. ®
