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Lines of code got a better publicist

curlewis.co.nz

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Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#21

Post by SlinkyOnStairs »

wongarsu wrote: post #18
SlinkyOnStairs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minor correction: LinkedIn, not twitter. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/galenh_principal-software-eng... > Because it wasn't about "engineers should write 1M LOC per month of product code" it was "we want to scale automated porting of code to safe languages so that 1 engineer managing 1M LOC of automated conversion can work" These are one and the same. Whether it's ported code or not doesn't change that. The framing…

I can easily game writing 1M LOC per month by having the LLM write code in more verbose ways, with useless indirections and abstractions thrown in for good measure. I could even ask claude to write code that does nothing but just takes up line. In contrast, converting 1M LOC of code per month is a much more solid measure, as long as you measure LOC of the source, not the new code. Sure, in the short term you can pick…

> Granted, you can still rush the work, not test properly, neglect good planning and engineering.

Which is the core point of my reply and not something to just be casually handwaved, thank you very much.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#23

Post by Trasmatta »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #12
Trasmatta wrote: post #8

> I think every engineer should be using AI daily. Why?

Please read the full paragraph for the answer instead of cherry picking a quote for a knee-jerk reaction: > Be curious, try the new tools, test the latest models. To not do so is silly. > [...] > you could delay adopting “the cloud” for a couple of years and survive. With AI you might get a few months. The way we work has already changed, and it’s not changing back as far as I can tell.

I read the entire paragraph, and the entire article. Nothing in there explained to me why every engineer should be using AI every day.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#24

Post by adverbly »

drooby wrote: post #14

Writing. Code. Is. No. Longer. The. Bottleneck. Deciding what to build. Reviewing Code. And testing code. Are the new bottleneck. So of course we don't see massive productivity gains. Because these parts of the SCLC were always bottlenecked but their capacity matched the throughout. We fired all the dedicated QAs years ago. Sr+ engineers that do all the code review are limited. Teams have not re-organized to match th…

This. Isn't. News.

People. Already. Know. This.

It hasn't been the bottleneck for decades for the majority of products.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#25

Post by psychoslave »

jkrems wrote: post #11
sunaurus wrote: post #6

I'm constantly thinking about that Microsoft guy who posted something like "we want 1 million LoC per engineer per month", which basically read as satire to most engineers I talked to, except apparently it was not satire at all, and indeed seemed to reflect the position of many CEOs etc when it comes to LLM code generation. I do think that over the past few months, it feels like the hype around producing unmaintainab…

> I'm constantly thinking about that Microsoft guy who posted something like "we want 1 million LoC per engineer per month", which basically read as satire to most engineers I talked to Did those engineers not actually read the complete tweet? Because it wasn't about "engineers should write 1M LOC per month of product code" it was "we want to scale automated porting of code to safe languages so that 1 engineer managi…

If everything in the initial code is 300% covered with excellently documented tests that should be minimally changed during transition (if transition don’t reveal any corner case tests were missing, maybe the transition is not such a bright move after all), that seems a possible thing to consider.

Otherwise it really sounds like a recipe for unnecessary huge risk with dubious expected positive outcome.

Not saying don’t have fun, but on the other side maybe not with the core product of you cash cow already?

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#26

Post by fridder »

sunaurus wrote: post #6

I'm constantly thinking about that Microsoft guy who posted something like "we want 1 million LoC per engineer per month", which basically read as satire to most engineers I talked to, except apparently it was not satire at all, and indeed seemed to reflect the position of many CEOs etc when it comes to LLM code generation. I do think that over the past few months, it feels like the hype around producing unmaintainab…

I think the reliability struggles of Github may have helped with this

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#30

Post by llm_nerd »

drooby wrote: post #14

Writing. Code. Is. No. Longer. The. Bottleneck. Deciding what to build. Reviewing Code. And testing code. Are the new bottleneck. So of course we don't see massive productivity gains. Because these parts of the SCLC were always bottlenecked but their capacity matched the throughout. We fired all the dedicated QAs years ago. Sr+ engineers that do all the code review are limited. Teams have not re-organized to match th…

Code has never been the bottleneck, and it was always an illusion that it was. I mean, programmers on the whole are a group that jerks around probably 95% of their time (this isn't an attack as I've spent my career as a software developer, and this included countless hours on Reddit, HN, Slashdot, and so on).
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