How will the user know the computer worked 'HARD', if it is not slow?
Do you not add sleep to your programs?
There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
101–110 of 530 posts
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#102One article said secure software was here because of AI, this one says it can now be performant. Yet when I ask for code it writes, by default, both slow and insecure code that mostly works. Kinda. As I try to get AI to rewrite it into more secure, less bloated and optimized code is when it starts to randomly crash. Then I read articles about how AI is "moving too fast" and cry.
It's all about the test suite. The test suite becomes an executable specification, and the better the spec, the better the results you can get from AI.
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Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#103[flagged]
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#104Feel like this is the equivalent of a traffic engineer standing at the grand opening of the 5th lane for the highway saying there’s no reason for traffic to be slow anymore. That is, there’s a misunderstanding of why software (traffic) was slow in the first place, and it has nothing to do with our ability to generate code (number of lanes), even if that code is “high quality”.
The HN crowd understands that, depending on bottleneck, adding a fifth network connection (lane) between 2 nodes may not necessary decrease the latency (travel time).
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#105100% sure software in the coming years will just feel slower and slower.
I agree, but it won’t be because we can’t do it. It will be easier than ever to achieve, but of course money for the tokens to do it will go toward some other aspect of the business. That the products get worse seems to be the rule.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I can't resist the pedantry but a traffic engineer knows better than anyone that adding a 5th lane (often even a 4th) won't improve traffic except in fairly specific circumstances. :D
That cannot be an emperical statement. Traffic engineers have absolutely wrecked the american city, largely be ause they didnt know the impact of adding lanes. It's not the only reason. I think that traffic engineers lack/lacked a feel, a certain gut understanding , an inability to feel through the skin. Just look around you. See and hear them at municipal meetings. They are unable to sensually experience the effects…
I've spoken with traffic engineers before, and the consensus I've gotten is that, excusing a few bad apples, much of the problems originate with popular or political interference.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#107One article said secure software was here because of AI, this one says it can now be performant. Yet when I ask for code it writes, by default, both slow and insecure code that mostly works. Kinda. As I try to get AI to rewrite it into more secure, less bloated and optimized code is when it starts to randomly crash. Then I read articles about how AI is "moving too fast" and cry.
Skill issue.
The fact is that with the right spec, agentic guardrails, and evals, frontier models can now one-shot secure, performant code.
This is the job of software engineering now. Learn to properly use the tools for the job.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#108100% sure software in the coming years will just feel slower and slower.
you are probably right as far as desktop stuff is concerned.
But there were some sea changes from time to time.
When the iphone came out, phones became very responsive to fingers. hate the control apple gave to customers, but their guidance made apps respond in milliseconds. Before that phones were clumsy. Wasn't a desktop, but was different.
Will we have voice/chat interfaces that will be bloated... but responsive like a conversation?
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I can't resist the pedantry but a traffic engineer knows better than anyone that adding a 5th lane (often even a 4th) won't improve traffic except in fairly specific circumstances. :D
But it will definitely improve, either speed or volume.
Check out the Downs-Thomson paradox.
Re: There's no reason for software to be slow anymore
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I can't resist the pedantry but a traffic engineer knows better than anyone that adding a 5th lane (often even a 4th) won't improve traffic except in fairly specific circumstances. :D
But it will definitely improve, either speed or volume.
I'm really bothered by the mindset of the people against this. People act like induced demand is evil.
In reality, if more people were able to go wherever they wanted to go, that's actually a good thing regardless of if the existing people didn't get to go somewhere faster.