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Lines of code got a better publicist

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Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#101

Post by getnormality »

DrewADesign wrote: post #51
getnormality wrote: post #5

This weird trend reached an apex in a Feb 2026 OpenAI blog post [1], recently on the front page [2], which describes the process for building... something... written 100% by agents. There is no description of what the thing is, no indication of what value it provides its users. The closest it gets is "the product has been used by hundreds of users internally, including daily internal power users". But the fact that t…

> "the product has been used by hundreds of users internally, including daily internal power users". My guess is it’s an email filter. > million lines of code > written 100% by agents Yeah, probably an email filter. Or maybe a JS menu for a departmental wiki that basically recreates jquery using MS JScript and transpiles it into JS 5.

Your hilariously specific hypotheses remind me of how little I know about technology.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#102

Post by Trasmatta »

elxr wrote: post #68
Trasmatta wrote: post #8

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

Because it's fun. And why shouldn't we be into incremental automation? I still write code manually to keep my trad-coding skills from withering away, but using AI without a doubt has allowed me to better test my existing apps. Create playwright automations I would've never had the time for. Allowed me to search through docs many times faster. And it just making programming more fun when I do use it for more challengi…

Sounds like it's working for you, but none of that explains to me why every engineer should be doing that, and every day

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#103

Post by lionkor »

dist-epoch wrote: post #96
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…

It's not unmaintainable if you have 1000 agents maintain it.

It is unmaintainable even if you spend 100k per month on tokens to have LLMs pretend they are maintaining it, if they slow down and make little ACTUAL progress. Sadly real progress is impossible to measure, if all you have is an overexcited """engineer""", a credit card, and so much cash spent you could hire all the best engineers you know and still have money for a porsche.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#104

Post by skydhash »

dist-epoch wrote: post #95
JCTheDenthog wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire Linux kernel is about 40 million LoC, and only something like 16 million LoC after you remove drivers. I have a hard time imagining whatever OpenAI was talking about there having anywhere close to 6% as much utility as the Linux kernel, despite having 6% as many lines of code. And I have a hard time imagining it's anywhere close to maintainable, regardless of how powerful their LLMs might be.

Chrome has 50 mil LoC https://openhub.net/p/chrome/analyses/latest/languages_summa...

Chrome is basically reinventing each OS API and libraries. One day they’ll have their own tcp stack and packet filter.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#105

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I kinda feel as if this was the money quote:

> If you got a free headcount increase essentially overnight, why wouldn’t you use it to deliver more value to your customers, faster?

That shows that, in reality, it's short-sighted profit-taking. Boss just wants another lambo in the garage, and doesn't really plan to be around, when it's time to pay the piper.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#106

Post by getnormality »

skydhash wrote: post #104
dist-epoch wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome has 50 mil LoC https://openhub.net/p/chrome/analyses/latest/languages_summa...

Chrome is basically reinventing each OS API and libraries. One day they’ll have their own tcp stack and packet filter.

It kinda makes sense given that one of their major products is a computer that runs an operating system literally called ChromeOS.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#107

Post by vanuatu »

dakiol wrote: post #99
bitwize wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI is the new cloud. There's no market for people or companies who aren't committed to it. If you're a dev who refuses to use AI, no company will hire you; and should a company decide not to use AI they will have a hard time retaining devs (and they will need more devs). Their investors and big-ticket customers will also think twice before signing off on major commitments. So yes, use AI. Don't nitpick the costs and…

> and should a company decide not to use AI they will have a hard time retaining devs (and they will need more devs) Need more devs? Why? If a company was being profitable just fine prio AI era, they will still be profitable if they decide not to use AI. Shipping crap faster is not a formula for success. Shipping quality faster? I prefer shipping quality at a good pace

youll be outcompeted by companies that do use it (caveat: effectively)

growth is much more important than profitability

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#108

Post by gamerdonkey »

dakiol wrote: post #98

>The difference this time is pace: you could delay adopting “the cloud” for a couple of years and survive. With AI you might get a few months. I don't think so. Take a good company A (with a good product and a good pace of good features) of today. Take the extreme case they decide not to use AI at all. Well, they will still be shipping good features at their current pace. No amount of AI will make a bad company ship…

Yeah, that closing message was a little weird to me. I understand framing the article as "not anti-AI", especially if the author uses and enjoys the tools. But the end sounds like a call to blindly adopt the tools and figure out the justification later.

Re: Lines of code got a better publicist

#109

Post by bitwize »

dakiol wrote: post #99
bitwize wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI is the new cloud. There's no market for people or companies who aren't committed to it. If you're a dev who refuses to use AI, no company will hire you; and should a company decide not to use AI they will have a hard time retaining devs (and they will need more devs). Their investors and big-ticket customers will also think twice before signing off on major commitments. So yes, use AI. Don't nitpick the costs and…

> and should a company decide not to use AI they will have a hard time retaining devs (and they will need more devs) Need more devs? Why? If a company was being profitable just fine prio AI era, they will still be profitable if they decide not to use AI. Shipping crap faster is not a formula for success. Shipping quality faster? I prefer shipping quality at a good pace

Enjoy getting your milkshake drunk by AI-first companies then.
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