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Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

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Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#131

Post by retired »

Pooge wrote: post #106
jpollock wrote: post #81

Programmers will write more efficient algorithms if their employers tell them to trade time-to-market for hardware cost. Previously, it was trade hardware cost for time-to-market. "Programmers" don't make this decision, the product owner does.

I disagree. Engineers choose the technical stack based on the specs. With LLMs, it's faster to ship even in a more verbose language like Go or Rust.

I have never worked for a company where the engineers choose the technical stack. It’s always the architect, the CTO or the mother company that decides what technology to choose. Could be a German/Dutch cultural thing though.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#132

Post by Someone »

Pooge wrote: post #114
armada651 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who determines the specs?

Specs are business requirements. Choosing a programming language is not a business requirement; it's a technical one.

> Choosing a programming language is not a business requirement; it's a technical one.

Not solely. The business will have reasons to stay on a mainstream language, for example because

- it offers better guarantees for hiring maintainers in the future

- it has a higher likelihood that security issues will be fixed rapidly for free

- LLMs are better at maintaining code written in it

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#133

Post by jpollock »

Pooge wrote: post #114
armada651 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who determines the specs?

Specs are business requirements. Choosing a programming language is not a business requirement; it's a technical one.

The programming language can have definite business impacts. It can impact hiring, salary costs (if the skill is rare), ramp-up costs (if it needs to be taught), etc.

Even bus-factor comes into it.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#135

Post by citrin_ru »

If memory shortages were not caused by AI then may be (but still unlikely). In the current situation even cautious in the past companies are switching to “move fast and break things” mode to not fall behind vibe coding competitors. When the velocity is the top priority there is no time fo efficiency.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#136

Post by pjc50 »

kapperchino wrote: post #57
cornstalks wrote: post #22

Some programmers will write more efficient code. At my $dayjob (one of the big tech companies) we're already planning a major goal next year of optimizing server code to reduce RAM requirements, and this is directly in response to the crunch. In practice I expect most optimizations will come from "stop doing stupid stuff" and not "use fancy advanced algorithms." But that's a cynical perspective so don't be cynical li…

Real, there are so many low hanging fruits for optimization but no one has time to do them. And they don’t incentivize spending your time on it either.

Exactly. Customer's RAM is free to the developer.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#138

Post by dabinat »

cornstalks wrote: post #22

Some programmers will write more efficient code. At my $dayjob (one of the big tech companies) we're already planning a major goal next year of optimizing server code to reduce RAM requirements, and this is directly in response to the crunch. In practice I expect most optimizations will come from "stop doing stupid stuff" and not "use fancy advanced algorithms." But that's a cynical perspective so don't be cynical li…

The key word here is “server”. Optimizing memory server-side directly translates to cost savings for companies. There is a lot less incentive to optimize memory for code that runs on the user’s computer.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#140

Post by thewhitetulip »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #100
thewebguyd wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the CEOs are to be believed, then 75% of all new code in Google is AI generated. 46% of GitHub internal code, and roughly 30% across all of Microsoft is AI. Meta expects at least 65%, and snap reported 65% is AI generated. Its how software is built now in these palces.

Given the uhhh, quality and issues GitHub and Microslop have been exhibiting recently, that’s probably not a great indicator.

Github was down so much, I was surprised that they didn't use Copilot to fix their issues
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