How I write code using Cursor • Hacker News Board

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#181

Post by 1oooqooq » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 11:56 AM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #168

miningape wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with a some good prompting and a little editing can write code good I agree with a good developer "baby-sitting" the model it's capable of producing good code. Although this is more because the developer is skilled at producing good code so they can tell an AI where it should refactor and how (or they can just do it themselves). If you've spent significant time refitting AI code, it's not really AI code anymore its…

I've spent soo much time in my life reviewing bad or mediocre code from mediocre devs and 95% of the time the code sonnet 3.5 generates is at least as correct and 99% of the time more legible than what a mediocre dev generates. It's well commented, the naming is great it rarely tries to get overly clever, it usually does some amount of error handling, it'll at least try to read the documentation, it finds most of the…

i love those hot takes because the market will historically fire you and hire the mediocre coders alone now.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#182

Post by 1oooqooq » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 11:57 AM UTC

lomase wrote: post #157

miningape wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misspelled AI - that's the extent of the irony

In my mother tongue is called IA, inteligecia artificial. I mix it up all the time.

you didn't have to explain. he knew, my friend. he knew.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#183

Post by scosman » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 11:58 AM UTC

scosman wrote: post #179

CrendKing wrote: post #32

I've been using AI to solve isolated problems, mainly as a replacement of search engine specifically for programming. I'm still not convinced of these "write whole block of code for me" type of use case. Here's my arguments against the videos from the article. 1. Snake case to camelCase. Even without AI we can already complete these tasks easily. VSCode itself has command of "Transform to Camel Case" for selection. I…

I started like this. Then I came around and can’t imagine going back. It’s kinda like having a really smart new grad, who works instantly, and has memorized all the docs. Yes I have to code review and guide it. That’s an easy trade off to make for typing 1000 tokens/s, never losing focus, and double checking every detail in realtime. First: it really does save a ton of time for tedious tasks. My best example is test…

Another fun example from yesterday: pasted a blog post in markdown into a HTML comment. Selected it and told sonnet to convert it to HTML using another blog post as a style reference.

Done in 5 seconds.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#184

Post by wanderingmind » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:02 PM UTC

As an aside, do we really need a new IDE for AI copilot? What makes Cursor better than say Cody, which is just an extension on VSCode which helps me stay with the mature IDE that has all the bells and whistles I need.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#185

Post by Giorgi » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:04 PM UTC

NitpickLawyer wrote: post #69

Giorgi wrote: post #41

That article reads just like half-a--ed chatgpt prompt designed to shill Cursor because it became irrelevant after introduction of Canvas tool.

> to shill Cursor because it became irrelevant after introduction of Canvas tool. Haha, no. A web interface won't make a full-fledged IDE irrelevant. Canvas is really cool for a quick session in the browser, when travelling, while in bed, on a plane, etc. It's neat and works. But it's nowhere near the IDE experience. Cursor is still a full IDE in the background, with all the bells and whistles that come with it. So i…

Haha, yes. I assume we will see more Cursor related shilling as it becomes irrelevant, don't we? Even this comments reads like an ad.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#186

Post by Hrun0 » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:06 PM UTC

I have tried both cursor and cline (formerly continue dev), and I don't seem to see the incredible performance boost using cursor like a lot of people say

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#187

Post by tyre » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:09 PM UTC

scosman wrote: post #179

CrendKing wrote: post #32

I've been using AI to solve isolated problems, mainly as a replacement of search engine specifically for programming. I'm still not convinced of these "write whole block of code for me" type of use case. Here's my arguments against the videos from the article. 1. Snake case to camelCase. Even without AI we can already complete these tasks easily. VSCode itself has command of "Transform to Camel Case" for selection. I…

I started like this. Then I came around and can’t imagine going back. It’s kinda like having a really smart new grad, who works instantly, and has memorized all the docs. Yes I have to code review and guide it. That’s an easy trade off to make for typing 1000 tokens/s, never losing focus, and double checking every detail in realtime. First: it really does save a ton of time for tedious tasks. My best example is test…

I’ve found it better at writing tests because it tests the code you’ve written vs what you intended. I’ve caught logic bugs because it wrote tests with an assertion for a conditional that was backwards. The readable name of the test clearly pointed out that I was doing the wrong thing (the test passed?.)

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#188

Post by snowstormsun » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:09 PM UTC

cynicalpeace wrote: post #175

It's amazing how little of my colleagues don't use Cursor simply because they haven't taken the 10 minutes to set it up. It's amazing how many naysayers there are about Cursor. There are many here and they obviously don't use Cursor. I know this because they point out pitfalls that Cursor barely runs into, and their criticism is not about Cursor, but about AI code in general. Some examples: "I tried to create a TODO…

Nope

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#189

Post by scosman » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:15 PM UTC

tyre wrote: post #187

scosman wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started like this. Then I came around and can’t imagine going back. It’s kinda like having a really smart new grad, who works instantly, and has memorized all the docs. Yes I have to code review and guide it. That’s an easy trade off to make for typing 1000 tokens/s, never losing focus, and double checking every detail in realtime. First: it really does save a ton of time for tedious tasks. My best example is test…

I’ve found it better at writing tests because it tests the code you’ve written vs what you intended. I’ve caught logic bugs because it wrote tests with an assertion for a conditional that was backwards. The readable name of the test clearly pointed out that I was doing the wrong thing (the test passed?.)

Interesting. I’ve had the opposite experience (I invert or miss a condition, it catches it).

It probably comes down to model, naming and context. Until Sonnet 3.5 my experience was similar to yours. After it mostly “just works”.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#190

Post by knuckleheads » Tue, Oct 29, 2024, 12:17 PM UTC

I use and am happy with Cursor and Chatgpt. Cursor will write out the syntax for me if I let it, sometimes wrong, sometimes right, but enough to keep a flow going. If there are larger questions, I just flip over to chatgpt and try and suss out what is going on there. Super helpful with tailwind and react, speaking as a dba and backend systems person.