Comment by soulofmischief
5 days ago
As long as interfaces are well defined, comprehensive tests are written, memory is safely handled and time complexity is analyzable, who cares what the rest of the code looks like.
I understand programming for the sake of programming, chasing purity and really digging into the creative aspects of coding. But I get that same kick out of writing perfect interfaces, knowing that the messier the code underneath is, the more my beautiful interface gets to shine. But transformers are offering us a way to build faster, to create more, and to take on bigger complexity while learning deeply about new domains as we go. I think the more we lean into that, we might enter a software golden age where the potential for creativity and impact can enter a whole new level.
> As long as interfaces are well defined, comprehensive tests are written, memory is safely handled and time complexity is analyzable, who cares what the rest of the code looks like.
Software engineers and anyone who'd get hired to fix the mess that the LLM created. Also, ironically, other LLMs would probably work better on...not messy code.
> But transformers are offering us a way to build faster, to create more, and to take on bigger complexity
Wow. You sound as if building faster or creating more is synonymous with quality or utility. Or as if LLMs allow us to take on a bigger level of complexity (this is where they notoriously crumble).
> we might enter a software golden age where the potential for creativity
I haven't heard of a single (good) software engineer whose creativity was stifled by their inability to code something. Is an LLM generating a whole book in Hemingway style considered creative, or a poem? Or a program/app?
> As long as interfaces are well defined, comprehensive tests are written, memory is safely handled and time complexity is analyzable, who cares what the rest of the code looks like
The thing is, code that does all of the things you listed here is good looking code almost by definition
If AI was anywhere near capable of producing this quality then it would be so thrilling, wouldn't it?
But it's not. The consensus seems to be pretty universal that AI code is Junior to Intermediate quality at best, the majority of the time
That generally isn't code that satisfies the list of quality criteria you mentioned
Do you give the agent a style guide?
Do you perform (or have another agent perform) code reviews on the agent's code?
Do you discuss architecture and approach with the agent beforehand and compile that discussion into a design and development plan?
If you don't do these things, then you're just setting yourself up for failure.
That’s just the hallmark of good software engineering or do you think everyone else was cowboy coding things with Vim before?
1 reply →
Ah yes the tried and true "you're holding it wrong"
By the time I did all the stuff you're suggesting, I could just build the damn thing myself
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Yeh, exactly. Code doesn’t matter. Correct and stable electrical states matter.
Energy based models and machines that boot strap from models, organize their state to a prompt are on their way. The analog hole for coders is closing.
Most software out there is the layers of made up tools and such to manage and deploy software. We’ll save a lot of cycles pruning it all for generic patterns.
5-10 more years it’s all hardware again. Then no longer need to program a computer like it’s 1970.