[beklein]

Honest question: would a normal CS student, junior, senior, or expert software developer be able to build this kind of project, and in what amount of time?

I am pretty sure everybody agrees that this result is somewhere between slop code that barely works and the pinnacle of AI-assisted compiler technology. But discussions should not be held from the extreme points. Instead, I am looking for a realistic estimation from the HN community about where to place these results in a human context. Since I have no experience with compilers, I would welcome any of your opinions.

[lelanthran]

> Honest question: would a normal CS student, junior, senior, or expert software developer be able to build this kind of project, and in what amount of time?

I offered to do it, but without a deadline (I work f/time for money), only a cost estimation based on how many hours I think it should take me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46909310

The poster I responded to had claimed that it was not possible to produce a compiler capable of compiling a bootable Linux kernel within the $20k cost, nor for double that ($40k).

I offered to do it for $40k, but no takers. I initially offered to do it for $20k, but the poster kept evading, so I settled on asking for the amount he offered.