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

Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

simonwillison.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 958 posts

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#391

Post by yieldcrv »

jwpapi wrote: post #373

> I know full well that if you ask Claude Code to build a JSON API endpoint that runs a SQL query and outputs the results as JSON, it’s just going to do it right. It’s not going to mess that up. You have it add automated tests, you have it add documentation, you know it’s going to be good. I feel like this is just not true. An JSON API endpoint also needs several decisions made. - How should the endpoint be named - W…

I’ve seen the best REST APIs since Claude Code has taken the wheel

Every verb implemented, and implemented correctly according to the obscure IETF and most compatible way when the IETF never made it clear

Intuitively named routes, error, authentication all easily done and swappable for another if necessary

I feel like our timeline split if you’re not seeing this

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#392

Post by weird-eye-issue »

jwpapi wrote: post #373

> I know full well that if you ask Claude Code to build a JSON API endpoint that runs a SQL query and outputs the results as JSON, it’s just going to do it right. It’s not going to mess that up. You have it add automated tests, you have it add documentation, you know it’s going to be good. I feel like this is just not true. An JSON API endpoint also needs several decisions made. - How should the endpoint be named - W…

> If I know the answer to all these questions, wiring it together takes me LESS time than passing it to Claude Code

How so?

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#393

Post by kdnxownxkwkd »

sanderjd wrote: post #336
truncate wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Bad engineers continue being bad, good engineers continue being good. I don't know if good engineers can necessarily continue to be good. There is limit to how much careful consideration one can give if everything is on an accelerated timeline. Regardless good or not, there is limit on how much influence you have on setting those timelines. The whole playing field is changing.

Hmmm, I think I disagree with this. I estimate that I'm now spending about 10 to 30 hours less time a week in the mechanical parts of writing and refactoring code, researching how to plumb components together, and doing "figure out how to do unfamiliar thing" research. All of those hours are time that can now be spent doing "careful consideration" (or just being with my family or at the gym or reading a book, which i…

Yeah! I mean, who needs to LEARN how to to these things properly when you can just let an autocorrect on steroids hallucinate the closest thing to “barely working”. Right?

10 to 30 hours saved on not learning new things! Hurray!

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#395

Post by mikestaas »

alishayk wrote: post #320
wek wrote: post #230

What an excellent article by a smart, humble, still-learning person! Favorite quote:" There are a whole bunch of reasons I’m not scared that my career as a software engineer is over now that computers can write their own code, partly because these things are amplifiers of existing experience. If you know what you’re doing, you can run so much faster with them. [...] I’m constantly reminded as I work with these tools…

What do you do if you don't have that existing experience? How do you build it up?

Break things, and then fix them. Repeat many times.

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#396

Post by jwpapi »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #392
jwpapi wrote: post #373

> I know full well that if you ask Claude Code to build a JSON API endpoint that runs a SQL query and outputs the results as JSON, it’s just going to do it right. It’s not going to mess that up. You have it add automated tests, you have it add documentation, you know it’s going to be good. I feel like this is just not true. An JSON API endpoint also needs several decisions made. - How should the endpoint be named - W…

> If I know the answer to all these questions, wiring it together takes me LESS time than passing it to Claude Code How so?

Like writing code to me is not slower than writing text?

When I write code every character I type in my computer has less ambiguity than when I write it in human language? I also have the help of LSPs, Linters and Auto-completes.

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#397

Post by BoorishBears »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #364
BoorishBears wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like having a coworker who's as skilled as you if not more skilled, but also an alien. Their mental model doesn't map cleanly enough to yours, and so where for a human you'd have some way to follow their thought patterns and identify mistakes, here the alien makes mistakes that don't add up. Like the alien has encyclopedic knowledge of op codes in some esoteric soviet MCU but sometimes forgets how to look for…

Dealing with the alien coworkers has always been the job, that is what software is to most people. Software developers get paid big money because they can speak alien, the only thing that is changing is the dialect.

Nope, I tried my best to be really detailed and already knew these replies would come flooding.

I'm an engineers engineer: I get the job isn't LOC but being able to communicate and translate meatspace into composable and robust sustems.

So when I mean an alien when I say an alien.

Not human.

Not in the cute "oh that guy just hears what everyone else hears and somehow interprets it entirely differently like he's from a different planet" alien way, but in the, "it is a different definition of intelligence derived from lacking wetware" alien way.

Intelligence is such multidimensional concept that all of humanity as varied as we are, can fit in a part of the space that has no overlap with an LLM.

-

Now none of that is saying it can't be incredibly useful, but 99% of the misuse and misunderstanding of LLMs stems from humans refusing to internalize that a form of intelligence can exist that uses their language but doesn't occupy the same "space" of thinking that we all operate in, no matter how weird or unqiue we think we are.

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#398

Post by jwpapi »

yieldcrv wrote: post #391
jwpapi wrote: post #373

> I know full well that if you ask Claude Code to build a JSON API endpoint that runs a SQL query and outputs the results as JSON, it’s just going to do it right. It’s not going to mess that up. You have it add automated tests, you have it add documentation, you know it’s going to be good. I feel like this is just not true. An JSON API endpoint also needs several decisions made. - How should the endpoint be named - W…

I’ve seen the best REST APIs since Claude Code has taken the wheel Every verb implemented, and implemented correctly according to the obscure IETF and most compatible way when the IETF never made it clear Intuitively named routes, error, authentication all easily done and swappable for another if necessary I feel like our timeline split if you’re not seeing this

I don’t want every verb implemented, I also dont want an IETF standard. I want as little as possible, so I have to worry about as little as possible in the future.

Use-cases differ, you described a complete REST API, which can be as much of a problem as a too little.

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#399

Post by hnuser123456 »

jwpapi wrote: post #398
yieldcrv wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen the best REST APIs since Claude Code has taken the wheel Every verb implemented, and implemented correctly according to the obscure IETF and most compatible way when the IETF never made it clear Intuitively named routes, error, authentication all easily done and swappable for another if necessary I feel like our timeline split if you’re not seeing this

I don’t want every verb implemented, I also dont want an IETF standard. I want as little as possible, so I have to worry about as little as possible in the future. Use-cases differ, you described a complete REST API, which can be as much of a problem as a too little.

I see you haven't encountered an API where a GET command can modify the database.

Re: Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like

#400

Post by yieldcrv »

jwpapi wrote: post #398
yieldcrv wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen the best REST APIs since Claude Code has taken the wheel Every verb implemented, and implemented correctly according to the obscure IETF and most compatible way when the IETF never made it clear Intuitively named routes, error, authentication all easily done and swappable for another if necessary I feel like our timeline split if you’re not seeing this

I don’t want every verb implemented, I also dont want an IETF standard. I want as little as possible, so I have to worry about as little as possible in the future. Use-cases differ, you described a complete REST API, which can be as much of a problem as a too little.

Then just tell it to do that

It'll even suggest it

You want a single RPC websocket go for it

Post reply on HN