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Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

danieldelaney.net

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Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#21

Post by Klaster_1 »

croes wrote: post #5

Natural language isn’t made to be precise that’s why we use a subset in programming languages. So you either need lots of extra text to remove the ambiguity of natural language if you use AI or you need a special precise subset to communicate with AI and that’s just programming with extra steps.

A lot of extra text usually means prior requirements, meeting transcripts, screen share recordings, chat history, Jira tickets and so on - the same information developers use to produce a result that satisfies the stakeholders and does the job. This seems like a straightforward direction solvable with more compute and more efficient memory. I think this will be the way it pans outs.

Real projects don't require an infinitely detailed specification either, you usually stop where it no longer meaningfully moves you towards the goal.

The whole premise of AI developer automation, IMO, is that if a human can develop a thing, then AI should be able too, given the same input.

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#22

Post by 65 »

croes wrote: post #5

Natural language isn’t made to be precise that’s why we use a subset in programming languages. So you either need lots of extra text to remove the ambiguity of natural language if you use AI or you need a special precise subset to communicate with AI and that’s just programming with extra steps.

We're going to create SQL all over again, aren't we?

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#23

Post by krainboltgreene »

kerblang wrote: post #15

English is a terrible programming language.

I suspect there's a gradient for language: One side is clarity, the other side is poetry. English definitely is farther to the poetry side than the clarity side, where programming languages are significantly closer to the clarity side.

I suspect there's an 100 year old book describing what I'm saying but much more eloquently.

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#24

Post by [deleted] »

croes wrote: post #5

Natural language isn’t made to be precise that’s why we use a subset in programming languages. So you either need lots of extra text to remove the ambiguity of natural language if you use AI or you need a special precise subset to communicate with AI and that’s just programming with extra steps.

[deleted]

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#26

Post by spacemanspiff01 »

croes wrote: post #5

Natural language isn’t made to be precise that’s why we use a subset in programming languages. So you either need lots of extra text to remove the ambiguity of natural language if you use AI or you need a special precise subset to communicate with AI and that’s just programming with extra steps.

Or a proposal/feedback process. Ala you are hired by non technical person to build something, you generate requirements and a proposed solution. You then propose that solution, they give feedback.

Having a feedback loop is the only way viable for this. Sure, the client could give you a book on what they want, but often people do not know their edge cases, what issues may arise/etc.

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#27

Post by 9rx »

empath75 wrote: post #14
croes wrote: post #5

Natural language isn’t made to be precise that’s why we use a subset in programming languages. So you either need lots of extra text to remove the ambiguity of natural language if you use AI or you need a special precise subset to communicate with AI and that’s just programming with extra steps.

AIs actually are very good at this. They wouldn't be able to write code at all otherwise. If you're careful in your prompting, they'll make fewer assumptions and ask clarifying questions before going ahead and writing code.

> If you're careful in your prompting

In other words, if you replace natural language with a programming language then the computer will do a good job of interpreting your intent. But that's always been true, so...

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#28

Post by px43 »

kerblang wrote: post #15

English is a terrible programming language.

Language evolves. As much as we are training computers to understand us, they are training us to understand them.

The level of precision required for highly complex tasks was never necessary before. My four year old has a pretty solid understanding of how the different AI tools she has access to will behave differently based on how she phrases what she says, and I've noticed she is also increasingly precise when making requests of other people.

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#29

Post by josefrichter »

I think everyone is aware that chat is not the ideal UI pattern for this. It's just the way current AI models work and generate content - that's why they have this "typewriter" mode, which naturally leads to a chat interface.

It's not really a conscious choice, but rather a side effect. And we already see the trend is away from that, with tools like chatGPT Canvas, editors like Windsurf, etc.

Re: Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

#30

Post by sho_hn »

I'd say this criticism is well-addressed in aider. Steering the LLM via code comments is the first UX I've seen that works.

https://aider.chat/docs/usage/watch.html

How jarring it is & how much it takes you out of your own flow state is very much dependent on the model output quality and latency still, but at times it works rather nicely.

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