Comment by ookblah

Comment by ookblah a day ago

i think everyone here has extremely different ideas of what AI coding actually is and it's frustrating because basically everyone is strawmanning (myself included probably), as if using it means i'm not looking at documentation or not understanding what is goin on at all times.

it's not about having the LLM write some "starter pack" toy scaffold. i means when i implement functionality across different classes and need to package that up and adapt, i can just tell the LLM how to approach it and it can produce entire sections of code that would literally just be adaptations of certain things. or to refactor certain pieces that would just be me re-arranging shit.

maybe that's not "boilerplate", but to me it's a collosal waste of my time that could be spent trying to solve a new problem. you can't package that up into a "code snippet" and it's not worth the time carefully crafting templates. LLM can do it faster, better, and cost me near nothing.

skydhash a day ago

> it's a collosal waste of my time

> LLM can do it faster, better, and cost me near nothing.

And this is one the thing I'm skeptical about. The above use case is a symptom of all code and no design. It is a waste of time because you're putting yourself in a corner, architecture wise. Kinda like building on a crooked foundation.

I've never done refactoring where I'm writing a lot of code, it's mostly just copy-paste and rebuilding the connection between modules (functions, classes, files, packages,...). And if the previous connections were well understood and you have a clear plan for the new design, then it's a no-brainer to get there. Same when adapting code, I'm mostly deleting lines and renaming variables (regex is nice).

Maybe I'm misunderstanding things, but unless it's for small scripts or very common project types, I haven't seen the supposed productivity gain compared to traditional tooling.

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ookblah a day ago

yes, that is one aspect of it.
1) refactoring. copy paste, re-arrange, extract, delete and rebuild the connection. i have the mental model and tell the LLM do do it across multiple files or classes. does it way faster and exactly how i would do it given the right prompt which is just a huge file that dictates how things are structured, style, weird edge cases i encountered as time goes on.
2) new features or sections based on existing. i have a service class and want to duplicate and wire up different sections across domains. not easy enough to just be templated, but LLM can do it and understand the nuances. again, generate multiple files across classes no problem.
i can do all these things "fast". i can do them even faster when using the LLM, it offloads the tediousness and i save my brian for other tasks. alot of times i'm just researching my next thing while it chugs away. i come back, lint and review and i'm good to go.
i'm honestly still writing the majority of the code myself, esp if it's like design stuff or new features where the requirements and direction aren't as clear, but when i need to it gives me a huge boost.
keeps me in the flow, i basically recharge while continuing to code. and it's not a small script but a full fledged app, albeit very straightforward architecture wise. the gains are very real. i'm just surprised at the sentiment on HN around it. it's not even just skepticism but outright dogging on it.

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- ang_cire 19 hours ago
  
  I love this detailed discussion of how people are actually using LLMs for coding, and I think this rarely happens in professional spaces currently.
  I do see more people who seem to be using it to replace coding skill rather than augment it, and I do worry about management's ability to differentiate between those versus just reverting to LoC. And whether it will become a demand for more code, for the same pay.
  
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- skydhash a day ago
  
  Maybe it's different mindset at play. Refactoring these is my way of recharging (because I approach as a nice puzzle to learn how to do it effectively, kinda like a break from the main problem). And the LLM workflow don't sit well with me because I dislike checking every line of generated code. Traditional tooling is deterministic, so I do the check once and move on.
  
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