Not So Locked In Any More: Coding Agents Make Language Choices Reversible

Summary

Simon Willison argues that the historical lock-in associated with technology choices — particularly programming languages — is dissolving in the agentic-coding era. He illustrates with a company that used coding agents to rewrite their legacy iPhone and Android apps in React Native, explicitly noting they could revert to native development if needed. The framing borrows from Mitchell Hashimoto: "Programming languages used to be LOCK IN, and they're increasingly not so." The practical implicatio