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Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

nytimes.com

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Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#121

Post by huflungdung »

slopinthebag wrote: post #120
kansface wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've generated 250KLoC this week, absolutely no changes in deps or any other shenanigans. I'm not even really trying to optimize my output. I work on plans/proposals with 2 or 3 agents simultaneously in Cursor while one does work, sometimes parallelized. I can't do that in less code and cleaner. I can't do it at all. Don't wait too long.

LOL that's it? I generated over 5 million lines of code this week. You need to step it up or you're gonna be left behind.

[dead]

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#122

Post by fweimer »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #84

how many times in the history of computer programming has there been an end to computer programming as we know it, successfully, and how many times predicted? I can think of one successfully, off hand, although you could probably convince me there was more than one. the principle phrase being "as we know it", since that implies a large scale change to how it works but it continues afterwards, altered.

What's the one successful one? Visicalc?

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#123

Post by fweimer »

mech422 wrote: post #87
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #84

how many times in the history of computer programming has there been an end to computer programming as we know it, successfully, and how many times predicted? I can think of one successfully, off hand, although you could probably convince me there was more than one. the principle phrase being "as we know it", since that implies a large scale change to how it works but it continues afterwards, altered.

Off the top of my head, I can think of the following during my career: 1. COBOL (we actually did still use it back in the 80s) 2.AI back in the 80s (Dr. Dobbs was all concerned about it ...) 3. RAD 4. No-Code 5. Off-shoring 6. Web 2.0 7. Web 3.0 8. possibly the ADA/provably correct push depending on your area of programming TBH - I think the AI's are nice tools, but they got a long way to go before it's the 'end of c…

COBOL certainly had a lasting impact, but only for some application domains. The rest didn't seem to be particularly successful or impactful. Maybe RAD if you consider office application macros and end user report generation in it. (Spreadsheets extended programming to non-programmers and had a long-lasting impact, but I wouldn't call them RAD.)

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#125

Post by iamflimflam1 »

allenu wrote: post #79
fixxation92 wrote: post #22

Conversations of the future... "Can you believe that Dad actually used to have to go into an office and type code all day long, MAUALLY??! Line by line, with no advice from AI, he had to think all by himself!"

I was thinking about that recently. Maybe decades from now people will look at things like the Linux kernel or Doom and be shocked that mere humans were able to program large codebases by hand.

It must have been:

Aliens Atlanteans Time travellers A hoax …

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#126

Post by iamflimflam1 »

sp00chy wrote: post #31
htx80nerd wrote: post #18

You have to hold AI hand to do even simple vanilla JS correctly. Or do framework code which is well documented all over the net. I love AI and use it for programming a lot, but the limitations are real.

Exactly that is also my experience also with Claude Code. It can create a lot of stuff impressively but with LOTS of more code than necessary. It’s not really effective in the end. I have more than 35 years of coding experience and always dig into the newest stuff. Quality wise it’s still not more than junior dev stuff even with latest models, sorry. And I know how to talk to these machines.

Try the new /simplify command.

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#127

Post by bot403 »

MadxX79 wrote: post #111
kansface wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've generated 250KLoC this week, absolutely no changes in deps or any other shenanigans. I'm not even really trying to optimize my output. I work on plans/proposals with 2 or 3 agents simultaneously in Cursor while one does work, sometimes parallelized. I can't do that in less code and cleaner. I can't do it at all. Don't wait too long.

Your developers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should (add 250kloc)

I've worked with a type of (anti?) developer in my career that seems to only be able to add code. Never change or take it away. It's bizarre. There's some calculation bug, then a few lines down some code which corrects it instead of just fixing the original lines.

It's bizzare, and as horrible as you might imagine.

And it's been more than one or two people I've seen do this.

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#128

Post by bot403 »

bikelang wrote: post #89

If coding truly becomes effortless to produce - and by that extension a product becomes near free to produce - then I find it quite odd that the executive class thinks their businesses won’t be completely up ended by a raging sea of competition.

The markets seem to agree with you and are pricing accordingly.

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#129

Post by bot403 »

fixxation92 wrote: post #22

Conversations of the future... "Can you believe that Dad actually used to have to go into an office and type code all day long, MAUALLY??! Line by line, with no advice from AI, he had to think all by himself!"

I had to run Jenkins to build my code. In the snow. And uphill on git pull and deploy.

Re: Coding after coders: The end of computer programming as we know it?

#130

Post by kennywinker »

leptons wrote: post #102
keeganpoppen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's just not even remotely my experience. and i am ~20k hours into my programming career. ai makes most things so much faster that it is hard to justify ever doing large classes of things yourself (as much as this hurts my aesthetic sensibilities, it simply is what it is).

I've never seen a human estimate their "programming career" in kilohours. Is that supposed to look more impressive than years? So, you've been programming only about 7 years? I guess I'm at about "170 kilohours".

I think it’s probabky because of the malcom gladwell “ten thousand hours” idea.
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