Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 507 posts

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#291

Post by rglover »

mhh__ wrote: post #277
rs186 wrote: post #40

A single tweet with lots of analogy, with no screenshot/screen recording/code examples whatsoever. These are just words. Are we just discussing programming based on vibe?

> vibe People do literally call it vibe coding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding (it turns out there is a wikipedia page already although suspect it'll be gone soon)

This is quite possibly one of the most disturbing things I've seen in awhile.

Sure, for fun and one-off private apps this is fine, but the second that some buzzed-on-the-sides haircut guy thinks this is the way, the chaos will rival a Hollywood disaster movie.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#292

Post by UltraSane »

nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #257
UltraSane wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at that point aren't you just replacing regular programming with creating the thousands of rules? I suppose the rules are reusable so it might be a form of meta-programming or advanced codegen

People endlessly creating "rules" for their proompts is the new version of constantly tweaking Vim or Emacs configurations

Born too late to explore the world.

Born to early to explore the galaxy.

Born at the right time to write endless proompts for LLMs.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#293

Post by beepbooptheory »

personjerry wrote: post #269
CGamesPlay wrote: post #255

I decided to check this out after seeing the discussion here. I had previously misunderstood that it required a Claude.ai plan, but it actually just uses your API keys. I did a comparison between Claude Code and Aider (my normal go-to): I asked it to do clone a minor feature in my existing app with some minor modifications (specifically, a new global keyboard shortcut in a Swift app). Claude Code spent about 60 secon…

That seems like a steal? Engineers are paid much more to do much less

I know this is not really in the spirit of the room here, but before I ever dreamed of getting paid to code, I only learned to at all because I was cheap and/or poor cook/grad student that wanted to make little artsy musical things on the computer. I remember the first time I just downloaded pure data. No torrent, no cracks, it was just there for me and all it asked for was my patience.

The only reason I ever got into linux at all was because I ended up with some dinky acer chromebook for school but didn't want to stop making stuff. Crouton changed my life in a small way with that.

As I branched out and got more serious, learning web development, emacs, java, I never stopped feeling so irrationally lucky that it was all free, and always would be. Coming on here and other places to keep learning. It is to this day still the lovely forever hole I can excavate that costs only my sleep and electricity.

This is all not gone, but if I was just starting now, I'd find hn and so and coding twitter just like I did 10 years ago, but would be immediately turned off by this pervasive sense that "the way to do things now" is seemingly inseparable from a credit card number and monthly charge, however small. I just probably would not of gotten into it. It just wouldn't feel like its for me: "oh well I don't really know how to do this anyway, I can't justify spending money on it!" $0.76 for 50 loc is definitely nuts, but even $0.10 would of turned me way off. I had the same thoughts with all the web3 stuff too...

I know this speaks more to my money eccentricities than anything, and I know we dont really care on here about organic weirdo self teachers anymore (just productivity I guess). I am truly not even bemoaning the present situation, everyone has different priorities, and I am sure people are still having the exciting discovery of the computer like I did on their cursor ide or whatever. But I am personally just so so grateful the timeline lined up for me. I don't know if I'd have my passion for this stuff if I was born 10 years later than I was, or otherwise started learning now. But I guess we don't need the passion anymore anyway, its all been vectorized!

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#294

Post by Bjorkbat »

personjerry wrote: post #269
CGamesPlay wrote: post #255

I decided to check this out after seeing the discussion here. I had previously misunderstood that it required a Claude.ai plan, but it actually just uses your API keys. I did a comparison between Claude Code and Aider (my normal go-to): I asked it to do clone a minor feature in my existing app with some minor modifications (specifically, a new global keyboard shortcut in a Swift app). Claude Code spent about 60 secon…

That seems like a steal? Engineers are paid much more to do much less

Tangential, but this reminds me of something someone said on Twitter that has resonated with me ever since. Startups targeting developers / building developer tooling are arguably one of the worst startups to build, because no matter how much of a steal the price is relative to the value you get, developers insist they can build their own or get by with an open-source competitor. We're as misguided on value as we are on efficiency and automation (more specifically, the old trope of a dev spending hours to automate something that takes minutes to do).

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#295

Post by Bjorkbat »

mhh__ wrote: post #277
rs186 wrote: post #40

A single tweet with lots of analogy, with no screenshot/screen recording/code examples whatsoever. These are just words. Are we just discussing programming based on vibe?

> vibe People do literally call it vibe coding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding (it turns out there is a wikipedia page already although suspect it'll be gone soon)

I'm amused by all the flags this article has. It reinforces this belief that "vibe-coding" isn't something that evolved organically, but was forced. I wouldn't go as far as to call it "astroturfed", I believe it was a spontaneous emergence, but otherwise it feels like an effort by a disproportionately small group of people desperately trying to make vibe-coding a thing for whatever reason.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#296

Post by jimbokun »

InvertedRhodium wrote: post #283
bikamonki wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right on point. The same principle applies when deciding whether to use a framework or not. Coders often marvel at the speed with which they can build something using a framework they don’t fully understand. However, a true programmer seeks to know and comprehend what’s happening under the hood.

I'll preface this with the fact I agree that there is a difference between using a framework and being curious enough to dig into the details I think you're veering into No True Scotsman territory here. IMO, the vast majority of programmers wouldn't meet the definition you've put forward here. I don't know many that dig into the operating system, platform, or hardware all that much, though I work in streaming media s…

That just means they are not programmers, but coders as defined here.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#297

Post by artdigital »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #255

I decided to check this out after seeing the discussion here. I had previously misunderstood that it required a Claude.ai plan, but it actually just uses your API keys. I did a comparison between Claude Code and Aider (my normal go-to): I asked it to do clone a minor feature in my existing app with some minor modifications (specifically, a new global keyboard shortcut in a Swift app). Claude Code spent about 60 secon…

Same here, I did a few small taks with Claude Code after seeing this discussion here and is too expensive for me.

A small change to create a script file (20 LoC) was 10cts, a quick edit to a README was 7ct

Yes yes engineers make more than that blah blah but the cost would quickly jump out of control for bigger tasks. I’d easy burn through $10-20 upwards a day with this, or upwards $100-$300 a month. Unless you have a Silicon Valley salary, that’s too expensive.

I use other tools like Cody (the tool the author created) or Copilot because I pay $10 a month and that’s it. Yes I get rate limited almost daily but I don’t need to worry that my tool cost is going out of control suddenly.

I hope Anthropic introduces a new plan that bundles Claude Code into it, I’d be much more comfortable using that knowing it won’t suddenly be more than my $50/mo (or whatever)

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#298

Post by throwaway2037 »

abxyz wrote: post #26
develoopest wrote: post #4

I must be the dumbest "prompt engineer" ever, each time I ask an AI to fix or even worse, create something from scratch it rarely returns the right answer and when asked for modification it will struggle even more. All the incredible performance and success stories always come from these Twitter posts, I do find value in asking simple but tedious task like a small refactor or generate commands, but this "AI takes the…

I think it's probably the difference between "code" and "programming". An LLM can produce code and if you're willing to surrender to the LLMs version of whatever it is you ask for, then you can have a great and productive time. If you're opinionated about programming, LLMs fall short. Most people (software engineers, developers, whatever) are not "programmers" they're "coders" which is why they have a positive impres…

    > Programmers laughed at the absurdity of left-pad[1] ("why use a dependency for 16 lines of code?")
I'm confused. Did they laugh, then still use it as a dependency? If not, did they reinvent the wheel or copy the 16 lines into their project? Right up until the day of the "NPM left-pad incident" tiny dependencies were working just fine.

Also, if you cannot tell the difference between code written by an LLM or a human, what is the difference? This whole post is starting to feel like people with very strong (gaterkeeper'ish) views on hi-fi stereo equipment, coffee, wine, ... and programming. Or should I say "code-as-craft" ?

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#299

Post by mwigdahl »

BeetleB wrote: post #244
slooonz wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that input tokens are quadratic with the length of the conversation, since you re-upload the n previous messages to get the (n+1)-nth message. When Claude completes a task in 3-4 shots, that’s cents. When he goes down in a rabbit hole, however…

I'm aider there's a command to "reset" so it doesn't send any prior chat. Whenever I complete a mini feature I invoke the command. It helpfully shows the size of the current contact in tokens and the cost so I keep an eye on it. Doesn't Code have a similar option?

It does — /clear. It also has /compact to summarize previous tasks to preserve some situational awareness while reducing context bulk.

Re: I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

#300

Post by CGamesPlay »

y1n0 wrote: post #287
CGamesPlay wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm paid much more to do much more than what I did in this simple task. Claude didn't even test the changes (in this case, it does not have the hardware required to do that), or decide that the feature needed to be implemented in the first place. But my comparison wasn't "how do I compare to Claude Code", it was "how does Aider compare to Claude Code". My boss does not use Aider or Claude Code, and would not be h…

I think you missed the point. The claim is that it would have cost you more to hire a person to do what either claude code or aider did.

I think I pretty directly addressed that point. Yes, it would be more expensive to hire me to do what Claude Code / Aider did, but nobody would be satisfied with my work if I stopped where Claude Code / Aider did.
Post reply on HN