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Why write code in 2026

softwaredoug.com

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Re: Why write code in 2026

#101

Post by cactusplant7374 »

ryandvm wrote: post #78
mrweasel wrote: post #73

Apparently it's not obvious to everyone, but if you can't write code, you can't review it. I do know people, and companies, that says: "So what, we ask Claude to write the code, Codex will then do the review". The thing that then strikes me as odd is that they still ask for the code in Python, Java, or some other high level language.... Why? Just ask Claude to dump out assembly, or a compiled binary, but no, they don…

They don't have Claude write assembly because there is no training corpus on people making CRUD apps in assembly. I'm as hateful of LLMs hollowing out the job market as the next guy, but the reality is the frontier LLMs are really good at writing anything that's been done and documented on the Internet a million times and unfortunately most of what software devs have been doing the last couple decades is shitting out…

It's still possible to make CRUD apps in assembly with an AI agent but it would be a research project.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#102

Post by supermdguy »

“Do you know what the industry term for a project specification that is comprehensive and precise enough to generate a program?

Code. It’s called code.”

- CommitStrip (https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/1p70bk8/sp...)

I think if you’re doing it right, the core of your code should be the simplest expression of the underlying business logic. Of course there’s always going to be supporting layers, and maybe those don’t need to be reviewed. But if you haven’t read the code, there’s an extent to which you don’t know the business logic.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#103

Post by podgietaru »

I was thinking about an experience I had recently, and how it relates to my feelings about AI... And it bummed me out a lot.

So I took over an open source project called Omnivore. It's a reading app in the vein of Pocket. The hosted version used pdf-lib to inject some functionality into the pdf viewer. Namely, highlighting, note taking, and storing location. pdf-lib is a licensed application, so when taking it to fully self-hosted this needed to change.

I migrated it over to pdf.js. And I went through the entire process. I added all the functionality bit by bit. It didn't take exceptionally long, maybe 1-3 days. But that process was really satisfying. I found a bug, fixed it, and then found a stackoverflow issue where someone was also experiencing the same issue and suggested the fix. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59151218/pdfjs-error-on-...

I'm pretty sure an ai could have done all of this. And therein lies my fear and my upset with AI. Not only would it have robbed me of that experience, but it shows that I have in a way been devalued. Because I do think that took a level of skill. And now that's gone...

Re: Why write code in 2026

#104

Post by softwaredoug »

podgietaru wrote: post #103

I was thinking about an experience I had recently, and how it relates to my feelings about AI... And it bummed me out a lot. So I took over an open source project called Omnivore. It's a reading app in the vein of Pocket. The hosted version used pdf-lib to inject some functionality into the pdf viewer. Namely, highlighting, note taking, and storing location. pdf-lib is a licensed application, so when taking it to ful…

I think what we’re learning is that up front slower experience can be valuable for maintaining the maintainers own understanding of the project

I’ll be very curious how / if the Bun port to Rust works out.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#105

Post by throwatdem12311 »

If you’re not writing code it won’t be long until you get to a point where your agent won’t be able to dig you out of whatever hole you’ve dug for yourself and then you are fubar because you’ve just completely forgotten how.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#106

Post by BerislavLopac »

mrweasel wrote: post #73

Apparently it's not obvious to everyone, but if you can't write code, you can't review it. I do know people, and companies, that says: "So what, we ask Claude to write the code, Codex will then do the review". The thing that then strikes me as odd is that they still ask for the code in Python, Java, or some other high level language.... Why? Just ask Claude to dump out assembly, or a compiled binary, but no, they don…

> but no, they don't trust the LLM that much

Yet...

Re: Why write code in 2026

#107

Post by ryandvm »

deadbabe wrote: post #88
ryandvm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have Claude write assembly because there is no training corpus on people making CRUD apps in assembly. I'm as hateful of LLMs hollowing out the job market as the next guy, but the reality is the frontier LLMs are really good at writing anything that's been done and documented on the Internet a million times and unfortunately most of what software devs have been doing the last couple decades is shitting out…

What's there to advance to? Without a revolutionary new platform to build apps on that no one has ever developed for before, there is basically no reason to believe there is any software left that has some business or economic value that hasn't already been written.

This gives "let's close the patent office"

Re: Why write code in 2026

#108

Post by dehrmann »

ryandvm wrote: post #78
mrweasel wrote: post #73

Apparently it's not obvious to everyone, but if you can't write code, you can't review it. I do know people, and companies, that says: "So what, we ask Claude to write the code, Codex will then do the review". The thing that then strikes me as odd is that they still ask for the code in Python, Java, or some other high level language.... Why? Just ask Claude to dump out assembly, or a compiled binary, but no, they don…

They don't have Claude write assembly because there is no training corpus on people making CRUD apps in assembly. I'm as hateful of LLMs hollowing out the job market as the next guy, but the reality is the frontier LLMs are really good at writing anything that's been done and documented on the Internet a million times and unfortunately most of what software devs have been doing the last couple decades is shitting out…

> They don't have Claude write assembly because there is no training corpus on people making CRUD apps in assembly.

I suspect that despite its translation abilities, this is true, but I'd like to see it do things in languages that are more or less appropriate for tasks to see how much the training corpus matters vs. its ability to translate. Assembly is a bit of an extreme example because you're either writing it as close to C as possible (C is essentially portable assembly) or you're writing complex, unreviewable code that happens to work. And who know if it's been trained on register allocation, or resorts to doing everything on the stack because it works.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#109

Post by Zambyte »

cactusplant7374 wrote: post #101
ryandvm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have Claude write assembly because there is no training corpus on people making CRUD apps in assembly. I'm as hateful of LLMs hollowing out the job market as the next guy, but the reality is the frontier LLMs are really good at writing anything that's been done and documented on the Internet a million times and unfortunately most of what software devs have been doing the last couple decades is shitting out…

It's still possible to make CRUD apps in assembly with an AI agent but it would be a research project.

By "research project" you you mean by people who understand assembly? Because then we're back to where we started.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#110

Post by teddyh »

supermdguy wrote: post #102

“Do you know what the industry term for a project specification that is comprehensive and precise enough to generate a program? Code. It’s called code.” - CommitStrip ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/1p70bk8/sp... ) I think if you’re doing it right, the core of your code should be the simplest expression of the underlying business logic. Of course there’s always going to be supporting layers, and m…

Original link: https://web.archive.org/web/20260521130338/https://www.commi...>
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