Let ChatGPT improve the "My first three months at the Rust Foundation…

…" blog post

I'm better at Rust, than at English... 😄

news/three-months-at-the-rust-foundation.md

@@ -8,61 +8,63 @@ tags:
 layout: layouts/news.njk
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-Back in May 2022 I got an email from the Rust Foundation saying:
+In May 2022, I received an exciting email from the Rust Foundation:
 
 > […] you have been provisionally selected to be one of our first Rust Foundation Fellows
 
-Fast-forward roughly one year, and that fellowship grant has transformed into a full-time job at the Rust Foundation, where my primary focus now is maintenance and feature development for [crates.io](https://crates.io), the official Rust package registry.
+Fast-forward one year, and that fellowship grant has transformed into a full-time role at the Rust Foundation. My primary focus now revolves around the maintenance and feature development for [crates.io](https://crates.io), the official Rust package registry.
 
-I started this job in April, and now, three months later, I thought it would be a good opportunity to recap on what I've worked on since then:
+As I reflect on my first three months in this position, I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the significant milestones I have achieved:
 
-## API token scopes and expiration
+## Improved API tokens
 
-Let's start with the most visible achievement first: API tokens on crates.io are now a lot more powerful and secure than before.
+One of the most noticeable achievements during this period has been the substantial improvements made to API tokens on crates.io.
 
 With the introduction of token scopes our users can now restrict their API tokens to specific crates and operations, for instance only allowing a token to publish new versions of a specific crate.
 
-Shortly after, I've also implemented optional token expiration, meaning that new API tokens can be configured to automatically expire at a certain point in time.
+In addition, I implemented optional token expiration, providing users with the ability to configure API tokens to automatically expire at a designated time.
 
-You can also read more details about this on the [Rust Blog](https://blog.rust-lang.org/2023/06/23/improved-api-tokens-for-crates-io.html).
+To delve into more details, please refer to the [Rust Blog](https://blog.rust-lang.org/2023/06/23/improved-api-tokens-for-crates-io.html).
 
 ## The rust-version field
 
-Crate authors have for quite some time been able to specify the minimum supported Rust version for their crate using a `rust-version` field in the `Cargo.toml` file. Up until a couple of weeks ago `cargo` had to read the `Cargo.toml` file of the downloaded crates to figure out if you might be using a Rust version that is incompatible with the downloaded crate.
+Crate authors have long been able to specify the minimum supported Rust version for their crate using the `rust-version` field in the `Cargo.toml` file. Previously, `cargo` had to read the `Cargo.toml` file of the downloaded crates to determine potential compatibility issues with the Rust version being used.
 
-In collaboration with [Cassaundra Smith](https://github.com/cassaundra) from [Futurewei](https://www.futurewei.com) I've worked on reading this field from the `Cargo.toml` file when new crates are uploaded, and then saving its content to our database and the crate index, so that `cargo` can eventually use it for dependency resolution purposes. Since this only worked for newly uploaded versions, I have also written a bit of code to backfill our database from the existing versions that were already uploaded to crates.io before we implemented support for this field.
+Working in collaboration with [Cassaundra Smith](https://github.com/cassaundra) from [Futurewei](https://www.futurewei.com), we implemented a solution that reads the `rust-version` field from the `Cargo.toml` file upon crate upload. The content is then stored in our database and the crate index, enabling `cargo` to eventually utilize it for dependency resolution purposes. To ensure comprehensive support, I also backfilled our database with this field's information for previously uploaded crate versions.
 
-## Data inconsistencies
+## Resolving Data Inconsistencies
 
-Unsurprisingly, crates.io has not been bug-free since the first line of code was written in 2014. This has resulted in a couple of interesting inconsistencies between the database, the crate index and the crate storage on S3. This ranged from versions that were yanked in the database, but not in the index, over versions with invalid SemVer versions, to crates that were deleted from S3 for privacy-related concerns, but were still in the database.
+As expected, crates.io has encountered its fair share of bugs and inconsistencies since its inception in 2014. Over the past few months, we have been diligently addressing these issues, focusing on resolving inconsistencies between the database, crate index, and crate storage on S3.
+
+This ranged from versions that were yanked in the database, but not in the index, over versions with invalid SemVer versions, to crates that were deleted from S3 for privacy-related concerns, but were still in the database.
 
 While our work here is not finished yet, we have cleaned up a lot of these inconsistencies over the past couple of months. We also started treating our database as the primary source of truth, instead of saving some metadata subset in the database and another subset in the index.
 
 ## The "sparse" index
 
-Using a git repository for the crate index seemed like a good idea at first, and it certainly has some nice properties, but as you may have noticed, the index update started to take quite some time in the past year. The reason for this is that every released version creates a commit in that index repository and downloading all of these commits takes time.
+Initially, utilizing a Git repository for the crate index seemed promising, showcasing several advantageous properties. However, as time went on, the index update process became increasingly time-consuming for everyone using `cargo`. This slowdown was primarily attributed to the need to download all the commits associated with each released version.
 
-The `cargo` team started to experiment with a solution to this issue by using HTTP requests for only the dependencies that it cares about in the individual project, instead of downloading the index of every crate and version that was ever released.
+To tackle this challenge, the `cargo` team initiated experiments with a solution called the "sparse" index. This approach involves using HTTP requests for only the relevant dependencies in individual projects, instead of downloading the entire index with every crate and version ever released.
 
 [Arlo Siemsen](https://github.com/arlosi) from Microsoft did a lot of the work on `cargo` and crates.io to support this on both sides. I've tried to support his efforts as best as I could by providing code reviews and steering the development efforts in the right direction.
 
-Rust 1.70 has now enabled the "sparse" index as the default way of working with dependencies, and while we initially had some issues to overcome during the development of this feature, it now seems to work very well.
+Starting with Rust 1.70, the "sparse" index has become the default method for managing dependencies. Although we encountered some obstacles during the development phase, the feature is now functioning very well.
 
 ## Preventing accidental leakage of secrets
 
-While working with the crates.io codebase, I noticed that quite a few structs were using derived `Debug` implementations, but were also containing secret values, like database credentials and AWS keys, that should not be printed in any logs. To prevent this from becoming an actual security issue in the future I introduced the [secrecy](https://crates.io/crates/secrecy) crate to our codebase and started using its `SecretString` struct for our various system credentials and other secrets.
+While working with the crates.io codebase, I noticed that several structs were using derived `Debug` implementations while containing secret values such as database credentials and AWS keys. Recognizing the potential security implications, I introduced the [secrecy](https://crates.io/crates/secrecy) crate to our codebase. This allowed us to utilize its `SecretString` struct for handling system credentials and other sensitive information, effectively preventing accidental exposure in logs.
 
 ## Fixing versions with build metadata
 
-"Build metadata" in SemVer versions means the `xxx` part in a version number like `1.0.0-beta.1+xxx`. Since this is a relatively rarely used feature, it took a while for anyone to notice that our implementation for this was slightly broken in various ways.
+The handling of "build metadata" in SemVer versions, denoted by the `xxx` part of a version number like `1.0.0-beta.1+xxx`, required attention due to certain flaws in our implementation.
 
-One way it was broken was that we allowed crate authors to publish `1.0.0+x` if `1.0.0+y` already exists. `cargo` however treats these versions as equivalent since they only differ in the build metadata part of the version number. This was manifesting in errors about invalid download checksums and other cryptic errors. While there was a long debate in the crates.io issue tracker on how the SemVer specification should be interpreted, the only pragmatic solution for this was restricting this on the crates.io side, since older versions of `cargo` can't easily be fixed to support this.
+Firstly, we discovered that we had permitted crate authors to publish `1.0.0+x` versions even if `1.0.0+y` already existed. However, `cargo` treats these versions as equivalent since they only differ in the build metadata part of the version number. Consequently, this inconsistency resulted in errors related to invalid download checksums and other cryptic errors. While the SemVer specification interpretation sparked a lengthy debate in the crates.io issue tracker, the only pragmatic solution for this was restricting this on the crates.io side, since older versions of `cargo` can't easily be fixed to support this.
 
-The second interesting fact about such versions is that some internet servers interpret a `+` character in the URL as a space character, namely Amazon S3, our crate file storage provider. While `crates.io` interprets `+` as `+`, S3 thinks of it differently, and we discovered that we had been saving the files to S3 with space character in their file names. After a lengthy investigation I came up with a solution to fix this issue, and the multistep process of this fix has started last week. We are now escaping `+` characters as `%2B` before we return any S3 or CDN URLs and started to move the S3 files to their correct paths.
+Secondly, we noticed that some internet servers interpret a `+` character in the URL as a space character, namely Amazon S3, our crate file storage provider. While `crates.io` interprets `+` as `+`, S3 thinks of it differently, and we discovered that we had been saving the files to S3 with space character in their file names. After a lengthy investigation I came up with a solution to fix this issue, and the multistep process of this fix has started last week. We are now escaping `+` characters as `%2B` before we return any S3 or CDN URLs and started to move the S3 files to their correct paths.
 
 ## Support for the crates.io support
 
-[Carol (Nichols || Goulding)](https://github.com/carols10cents) had essentially been the only person behind the [help@crates.io](mailto:help@crates.io) support email address for some time. Since I was now getting paid to work on crates.io, I offered to support her with this too.
+Until recently, [Carol (Nichols || Goulding)](https://github.com/carols10cents) had primarily managed the [help@crates.io](mailto:help@crates.io) support email address on her own. Since I was now getting paid to work on crates.io, I offered to support her with this too.
 
 My first task was updating the (private) "crates.io operations guide", which also contains information on how to handle common support requests, like people requesting crate transfers or crate deletions due to privacy-related concerns.
 
@@ -72,10 +74,10 @@ While the support volume is fortunately still limited to only a couple of reques
 
 We have been using [Renovate](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate) on the crates.io repository for quite a while already, and it is a great way to keep all of our dependencies up-to-date. Still, sometimes a dependency update can't just be merged because it is breaking our continuous integration checks in some way. When I started my job in April we had quite a few blocked dependency upgrades due to such issues. One week later, I managed to upgrade us to the latest version of everything again.
 
-I also discovered [cargo-deny](https://github.com/EmbarkStudios/cargo-deny) during that time, and later added it to our CI checks. This tool helps us find bad dependencies in our dependency tree, either with incompatible licenses or with active security advisories. When I initially introduced it, it had immediately found five issues that we needed to fix.
+During this time, I also discovered [cargo-deny](https://github.com/EmbarkStudios/cargo-deny), and later incorporated it into our CI checks. This tool assists in identifying problematic dependencies in our dependency tree, including those with incompatible licenses or active security advisories. Upon its implementation, we promptly addressed five issues it had identified.
 
 ## Closing thoughts
 
-While each weeks feels like I've accomplished very little, my [work log](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/work-log-template-for-software-engineers/) is now four pages long and includes a lot more points than I could fit in this blog post. I'm also pretty sure that this new job significantly increased my [imposter syndrome](https://blog.rust-lang.org/inside-rust/2022/04/19/imposter-syndrome.html), but since people keep telling me that they are happy with the work that I'm doing, I guess I'm doing alright…
+While it often feels like each week yields only modest progress, my [work log](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/work-log-template-for-software-engineers/) has already grown to four pages and includes a lot more bullet points than I could fit in this blog post. I'm also pretty sure that this new job significantly increased my [imposter syndrome](https://blog.rust-lang.org/inside-rust/2022/04/19/imposter-syndrome.html), but since people keep telling me that they are happy with the work that I'm doing, I guess I'm doing alright…
 
 Finally, I would like to thank the [OpenSSF's Alpha-Omega Initiative](https://openssf.org/community/alpha-omega/) and the [JFrog](https://jfrog.com/blog/jfrog-joins-rust-foundation-as-platinum-member/) for funding the Rust Foundation security initiative, which enabled me to get this job and work on a lot of the things above.