Yes I don’t need to use these tools because I already have code generators. Wondering about config options I use documentation or a search engine. It’s cute to put them together in a single UI but it doesn’t make these tool inherently more intelligent. It just saves me a few alt+tabs.
An LLM is just taking prefabbed templates and swapping the possibilities in the answer for a statistically relevant solution. My code generator outputs a prefabbed template with a deterministic solution no statistical guessing required.
What kind of code generators are you talking about? The ones I have are just templates with macros for scaffolding boilerplate, but they are not even remotely comparable to how I use LLMs and definitely not a substitute.
You dont understand how powerful LLMs are. Go use claude sonnet 3.5. Paste in 1000 lines of code, and describe a code change you want to make. Iterate on the solution it gives. Do this for a week.
If I did that I would waste so much time. I know what code is in my codebase. Maybe if I was a novice this would be effective to help me learn it. Is the point of the exercise to wow myself for a week that an LLM can spit out solutions?
I don’t get the exercise here though. If I have a 10K LOC then why would I iterate over the file to make changes? It’s a bad code base. Why wouldn’t I have my LLM break down the file into smaller components so it’s not so daunting every time I need to make a change and require an LLM to save a days worth of work time.
Let’s say there is a reason to keep this 10K LOC together in a single file. I have never had work in SWE that involved making minor iterations to a file over a week where the work took a whole day to complete. I can see how that could happen but requiring a day to change code seems like there are bigger issues than a 10K LOC file. Unless I’m a complete amateur that thinks they’ve always been not an amateur, and needs an LLM to make a minor change. I just don’t see the point a lot of the times.
What do I do with all this extra time I’m saving? Retire early because I’m getting paid more for doing less right (and I saved all that time)?
How about when the LLM doesnt work right? If I’m a junior engineer that lets a computer write everything for me; How much time do I spend hacking at a prompt to get what I want vs just writing the damn code?
10x LoC is going to require more automation, to manage the sheer mass of it, which is more tools/money/layers of abstraction. AI coders need AI testers and AI peer reviewers, and need to iterate over and over to compensate for incorrectness to produce a working feature. That sounds hellishly inefficient. (but all it has to be is cheaper i suppose)
You're speaking theoretically but we're already using it like this and it's not hellish or inefficient, or I wouldn't use it. Granted, it fits certain tasks better than others but when it does it's a massive relief and I can't imagine going back.
