Technologist, software architect, mentor, author, speaker, cyberneticist. Opinions my own. see also fosstodon.org/@peterritchie
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Peter Ritchie 💭 retweeted
The challenge I see with it is that Microsoft has had a very predictable schedule with layoffs since 2020.
The concern I'm hearing is: "If I don't take this one, what does the 'involuntary exit offer' look like?"
Some of the smartest and creative folks in software work at Microsoft and don't deserve to be threatened every 6 months with a layoff
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$120,000 in tokens, not for the faint of heart.
In the year 2000, Joel Spolsky (founder of Stack Overflow) wrote a famous article titled “Things You Should Never Do, Part I.” In it, he talks about how rewriting your code from scratch is the single worst strategic mistake any software company can make. However, times have changed.
The cost of writing software is dropping exponentially and that has changed the math entirely on if it is worth rewriting your codebase. For instance, this year Anthropic’s Jarred Sumner ( @jarredsumner ) rewrote Bun in Rust in 11 days leading to many performance and correctness benefits.
Likewise, Stephen Toub (Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, @stephentoub ) rewrote the GitHub Copilot runtime (400,000-line codebase) in Rust by himself. I thought it’d be interesting to lay out everything he learned in the process. So I interviewed him about how and why he did it.
In this episode:
• Why he choose Rust of all languages
• Rollout strategies (incremental vs all at once)
• How he prevented regressions
• Steering agents and which models he used
• Career lessons and engineering advice
Where to watch:
• YouTube - piped.video/watch?v=PLMOVlZC…
• Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/4zt…
• Apple Podcasts - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
• Transcript - developing.dev/p/e073-stephe…
Thank you to the sponsor of this episode for supporting my work:
• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at workos.com/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:06 Why the Copilot runtime needed a Rust port
05:38 Why he chose Rust
11:28 Discussing rollout strategies
21:57 How he caught regressions
32:08 Guiding the agents
42:11 Catching regressions before prod
45:16 Which models he used
50:03 The end benefit and costs
01:03:24 When to do a full rewrite
01:06:40 Career learnings on the way to Distinguished
01:16:00 Top technical book recommendation
01:17:49 Advice for young engineers
01:21:00 Outro
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#UnigetUI Because there are so many package managers that the package managers need a package manager manager. devolutions.net/unigetui/
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If everyone gave their RAM to OpenAI (or data centers that OpenAI uses) they would not have functional computers to use AI.
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Peter Ritchie 💭 retweeted
Happy Halloween
![[PANEL 1 - Threddy and Freddy standing in the office. Threddy is wearing a purple witch's hat. Freddy is dressed as the grim reaper, holding a scythe.]
Threddy: I like your grim reaper costume.
[PANEL 2 - closeup of Freddy]
Freddy: Thank you. The theme is workforce transformation.
[PANEL 3 - closeup of Freddy's hand, showing a candy bar, with a label that reads "exit offer"]
Freddy: I'm handing out candy that says "exit offer".
[PANEL 4 - zoomed out to both characters.]
Threddy: More terrifying than any horror film.](/pic/orig/media%2FHV-ZCKzbwAABIRr.jpg)
ALT [PANEL 1 - Threddy and Freddy standing in the office. Threddy is wearing a purple witch's hat. Freddy is dressed as the grim reaper, holding a scythe.] Threddy: I like your grim reaper costume. [PANEL 2 - closeup of Freddy] Freddy: Thank you. The theme is workforce transformation. [PANEL 3 - closeup of Freddy's hand, showing a candy bar, with a label that reads "exit offer"] Freddy: I'm handing out candy that says "exit offer". [PANEL 4 - zoomed out to both characters.] Threddy: More terrifying than any horror film.
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I have to question the decision that the @SonarQube extension for Visual Studio made to display a modal popup about SonarQube errors on every build. E.g., before each test runs is made. Does anyone _not_ turn that off?
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Blogged: Things That Caught My Attention Last Week - October 26 bit.ly/4iL5ugE #dotnet
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What should the future of .NET look like? Let’s hear your take. Share your needs, ideas, and everyday experiences in the 2026 State of .NET survey. 🔗 msft.it/6012aakDI
#dotNET
ALT A purple background features two light bulb icons on the left, one outlined and one filled. The text reads, 'Inquiring minds want to know...' in a mix of black and white fonts, emphasizing curiosity and questioning.
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Blogged: Things That Caught My Attention Last Week - October 19 bit.ly/4ignP3W #dotnet
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Peter Ritchie 💭 retweeted
If your app can't work without a package, API, database, identity provider, or cloud service, that's part of your architecture.
Even if it isn't on the diagram.
Know who owns it, how it fails, and what happens when it changes.
#SoftwareArchitecture
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Saving a new file in Microsoft @Office with multiple @onedrive accounts has no way of differentiating which account it will save to:
ALT The Choose a location drop-down from Microsoft (Excel) when saving a new file the first time showing "Documents OneDrive - Personal" three times with no way to differentiate them.
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When your team doesn't understand the code that they've accepted in a pull request, is there a point to doing pull requests? With little point to pull requests, why have revision control? If you trust AI, why not trust it to "revert" and be done with revision control?
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I noticed rant about how airports don't have "tarmac" anymore. He wasn't wrong, it's obsolete. But it really ignores how English speakers/writers evolve words by usage not just by definition. Like "dialing" and "hanging up" a phone, and "carbon copy". Know of any others?
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Peter Ritchie 💭 retweeted
With AI, it’s tempting to create big tickets because AI can handle big tasks, and it generates code so quickly.
But the benefits of small, focused tickets remain relevant in the AI era.
- Get feedback quicker.
- Avoids context bloat / compacting.
- Less chance of spending a bunch of time going in the wrong direction.
- Leads to small PRs, which are easier to review.
- I’m more likely to understand a small ticket, and to notice gaps, inconsistencies, and logical issues in the requirements.
- Small tickets lead to smaller releases, which reduces risk.
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Blogged: Things That Caught My Attention Last Week - October 12 bit.ly/3Undk6L #dotnet
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It is what the AI marketing says it can do. It will be interesting how this plays out: great software or not, legal or not.
Creator of free Adobe clones unveils open-source Microsoft Office Excel, PowerPoint, and Word replications tomshardware.com/software/mi…
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