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> these translations are still useful as a starting point, not a destination.

This was the case for the Go compiler (automatic translation from C to Go), and it has worked out well in practice. There are still some vestiges, but it's moving more and more toward idiomatic Go all the time.

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Yeah, this is the broad goal of the project. As much as I love fresh rewrites, I don't think they have nearly the same hope of becoming successful as this sort of gradual approach. It's a big project, and there's lots of code that's still not idiomatic by any means, but the goal is to get 1% better every day.

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