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Why write code in 2026

softwaredoug.com

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Re: Why write code in 2026

#211

Post by cpursley »

dude250711 wrote: post #129
ekidd wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Claude is perfectly capable of writing assembly. Here's a working (basic) Prolog interpreter that Claude Fable 5 wrote in WebAssembly in 61 minutes for $16.75 in token costs: https://github.com/emk/fable-wasm-prolog/blob/main/prolog.wa... WebAssembly is slightly easier than real assembly, but here Fable used WASM GC extensions, which are poorly documented and not yet super common. Fable didn't even need to debug it;…

The guys with unlimited Fable/Mythos access are for some reason incapable of producing a flawless Claude Code app built entirely in native assemblies.

You’re getting down voted, but it would really be nice if they rebuilt the thing in Rust or something like that. I’m just tired of these enormous JavaScript bundles pretending to be desktop apps. Especially when we need to squeeze as much juice as possible out of our machines.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#212

Post by koolba »

ares623 wrote: post #152
enraged_camel wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> There's more to it than that: writing is thinking. If you stop writing code, you aren't thinking anymore. Humans have been thinking long before writing was invented . Why is code special?

have you tried thinking for a long time without writing anything down?

Yes in three specific environments for varying durations. Lying down to sleep, showering and driving.

Each last for a different amount of time and you generally can’t write or even read anything. But in my personal experience, all three lead to solving the most difficult software problems.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#213

Post by pythonplayer123 »

softwaredoug wrote: post #100
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…

I’m finding it all boils down to cognitive differences. Some people find code easier to read than the English description. It’s more precise and many experienced devs can scan it and know what’s happening Many other people can’t read code. Or they find English easier to read than code. Thats not a knock on anyone. Maybe the latter will rule the world because the former focuses too much on irrelevant details. Or maybe…

I wonder how LLMs could be compared to compilers. I personally think the nondeterministic behavior of LLMs are the biggest distinguisher.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#214

Post by mintflow »

This resonate with me a lot

Recently I am seriously thinking the time when agent do the work and I was waiting for it's output, I got a bit lost given it really can do a lot but it make me feel some crisis as a human, even it still can provide me a sort of Joy because some task I long want to do but no time to start can be finally take shape, but the Joy is actually not comparable with the Joy when I read the code and hack with it

Concretely, I am letting agent to write some serious part of code to rust and I will consider only let Agent to handle the UI and integration stuffs, and I will take the rust part and rust is a language that I want to learn and be professional given I was do lots of C coding

Re: Why write code in 2026

#215

Post by ares623 »

koolba wrote: post #212
ares623 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you tried thinking for a long time without writing anything down?

Yes in three specific environments for varying durations. Lying down to sleep, showering and driving. Each last for a different amount of time and you generally can’t write or even read anything. But in my personal experience, all three lead to solving the most difficult software problems.

Fair. But in all 3 did you very quickly write down the solution as soon as you were able?

Re: Why write code in 2026

#216

Post by lelanthran »

satvikpendem wrote: post #170
lelanthran wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans have been thinking long before writing was invented. And look how poorly they did it until they invented writing. > Why is code special? You don't get better at thinking without doing. With code the "doing" part is writing. In your view, it is reasonable to expect HS students to thoroughly read a book on trigonometry and then ace the exam? We know, from experience , that only by doing problems does the stude…

> And look how poorly they did it until they invented writing. How can you know how poorly they did it?

> How can you know how poorly they did it?

Their lack of progress. Humans existed in the same basic form for around 100k years before they finally invented agriculture, which led to some improvements, and then rapid progress once writing was invented.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#217

Post by Pavilion2095 »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #200

The relevant question is who is going to pay you to write code manually. It's something that's increasingly hard to justify. The answer is of course that people are not paying for code to be written or generated but for some problem to be solved. Whoever does that with the least amount of drama and cost gets the business. And using AI tools just allows for compressing the timelines a bit in a way that is hard to igno…

> The relevant question is who is going to pay you to write code manually.

Hopefully companies in the industries where software quality matters and is regulated, e.g.: medicine, aviation, nuclear, etc.

Although this market is relatively small.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#218

Post by wartywhoa23 »

jimbokun wrote: post #179
ekidd wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Claude is perfectly capable of writing assembly. Here's a working (basic) Prolog interpreter that Claude Fable 5 wrote in WebAssembly in 61 minutes for $16.75 in token costs: https://github.com/emk/fable-wasm-prolog/blob/main/prolog.wa... WebAssembly is slightly easier than real assembly, but here Fable used WASM GC extensions, which are poorly documented and not yet super common. Fable didn't even need to debug it;…

Just interesting to see Claude’s hourly rate is around $17. Much cheaper than a human software engineer. But comparable to the wages for some human workers.

As soon as human software engineers are Ubered away from the field, the price will ramp up to that of a human software engineer or more, have no doubt.

ROI won't make itself up.

Re: Why write code in 2026

#220

Post by quantumHazer »

ekidd wrote: post #117
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…

Claude is perfectly capable of writing assembly. Here's a working (basic) Prolog interpreter that Claude Fable 5 wrote in WebAssembly in 61 minutes for $16.75 in token costs: https://github.com/emk/fable-wasm-prolog/blob/main/prolog.wa... WebAssembly is slightly easier than real assembly, but here Fable used WASM GC extensions, which are poorly documented and not yet super common. Fable didn't even need to debug it;…

> Fable didn't even need to debug it; I believe essentially all the assembly worked correctly on the first try.

so you don't know if it works properly or not

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