Comment by nunez
2 hours ago
Why are you focusing on syntax so much? There's more to that when writing code.
That's why students learn how to write pseudo-code before picking up a programming language. Learning how to think through implementing a solution to a problem is extremely important. It's exactly this experience that helps engineers grow their scope and understand bigger, more complex system.
There's also the tactical components of using programming languages. The only way to know when to use one type of data structure over another, or to debug tricky language-specific behavior is _to actually have used that language._
And it's exactly this knowledge that's being threatened by LLMs given how they are implemented today.
Data structures are not tactical components of programming languages.
E.g. when I am writing SQL, I need to be thinking about the underlying data structures too - even though I am not specifying the execution path.