In the case of Rust I don't believe this is 100% true given C ABI compatibility. You could start rewriting in such a way that it is integrated with the existing code and slowly, but surely tease the C out of the system.
It would for the longest time be a C program with a metastasizing wart of Rust hung off the side, impossible to get into, impossible to work with, debugging hell, compilation hell. The distros would weep.
JulianMorrison|10 years ago
pcwalton|10 years ago
And Firefox has a good chance to become exactly what you describe with the weird cancer analogy--in fact, the nightly builds already are.