[wrxd]

This thing has likely all of GCC, clang and any other open source C compiler in its training set.

It could have spotted out GCC source code verbatim and matched its performance.

[Rapzid]

It's kinda of a failure it didn't just spit out GCC isn't it?

If I had GCC and was asked for a C compiler I would just provide GCC..

[xigoi]

That’s the equivalent of getting less than 50% on a quiz consisting entirely of yes/no questions.

[enum]

It’s in Rust…

[wrxd]

It's an LLM, surely it could read gcc source code and translate it to Rust if it really tried hard enough

[vidarh]

It wasn't given gcc source code, and was not given internet access. It the extent it could translate gcc source code, it'd need to be able to recall all of the gcc source from its weights.

[enum]

Right. And the arguably simpler problem, where the model gets the C code directly, is active research: https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/translating-all-c-to...

All of this work is extraordinarily impressive. It is hard to predict the impact of any single research project the week it is released. I doubt we'll ever throw away GCC/LLVM. But, I'd be surprised if the Claude C Compiler didn't have long-term impact on computing down the road.

[vidarh]

I occasionally - when I have tokens to spare, a MAX subscription only lasts so far - have Claude working on my Ruby compiler. Far harder language to AOT compile (or even parse correctly). And even 6 months ago it was astounding how well it'd work, even without what I now know about good harnesses...

I think that is the biggest outcome of this: The notes on the orchestration and validation setup they used were far more interesting than the compiler itself. That orchestration setup is already somewhat quaint, but it's still far more advanced than what most AI users use.