51–60 of 123 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there any good systems that somehow enforce consistency between documentation and code? Maybe the problem is fundamentally ill-posed.
Ultimately the code is the documentation.
My intentionality is that I'll never let it make the changes. I make the changes. I might make changes it suggests, but only upon review and only written with my hands.
The useful part is not just asking it to write code, but giving it context: how the codebase got here, what constraints are intentional, where the sharp edges are, and what direction we want to take.
With that guidance, it can be excellent. Without it, it tends to produce changes that make sense in isolation but not in the system.
Because of the way that I use AI, I am constantly looking at the code. I usually leave it alone, if I can; even if I don't really like it. I will, often go back, after the fact, and ask for refactors and documentation. It works. Probably a lot slower than using agents, but I test every step, and it is a lot faster than I would do it, unassisted.
I don't think testing the product alone is good enough, because when you give it tests it has to pass it prioritizes passing them at the expense of everything else — including code quality. I've seen it pull in random variables, break semantic functions, etc.
Related, it seems to me that there are two types of tests, the ones created in a TDD style and can be modified and the ones that come from acceptance criteria and should only be changed very carefully.
AI feels less like an autonomous programmer and more like a very capable junior engineer. The useful part is not just asking it to write code, but giving it context: how the codebase got here, what constraints are intentional, where the sharp edges are, and what direction we want to take. With that guidance, it can be excellent. Without it, it tends to produce changes that make sense in isolation but not in the syste…
My intentionality is that I'll never let it make the changes. I make the changes. I might make changes it suggests, but only upon review and only written with my hands.
unfortunately, unless you are god level good (i would say top 100 developers in the entire world), you will be fired eventually.