alt Hacker News> Can all the maintainers of the c codebase move over to maintaining (forward) the Rust codebase. Surely there'll be some friction, and losses to friction.
there are always losses. Anyone who can maintain a non-trival C code base can maintain Rust. It will take them some time to learn, but learning a new programming language is not hard for someone who wants to. In a couple years they will be just as productive.
The question is do they want to? I do not have much hope the existing maintainers will move. Some will, but I expect the majority will not.
If a business decides to migrate from X-lang to Y-lang (or X-system to Y-system) for some particular and sensible reason can the business afford to spend a couple of years to restore its productivity to what it was?
It might, but there'll be a significant cost, even outside of developer attrition. In a lot of operating businesses the opportunity cost is quite high given all the moving parts that sustain its current operations i.e. people, processes, etc.
It's a tough call; and a one-time automated code conversion may be the smallest part of it.