Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If AI writes your code, why use Python?

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 1001 posts

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#181

Post by chickenman_98 »

hirvi74 wrote: post #171
bensyverson wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use Go. LLMs have seen a ton of it, they write it well, it compiles practically instantly, and it has all the advantages of a typed compiled language. I created a big Python codebase using AI, and the LLM constantly guesses arguments or dictionary formats wrong. Unit tests and stuff like pydantic help, but it's better to avoid that whole class of runtime errors altogether.

But what is the selling point for Go? I get that it is allegedly hailed to be a simple language with basically no batteries included, but why is that a selling point? Does Go excel at anything no other language does?

I think that’s sort of the selling point no? It’s really boring. It has like -10 keywords, compiles insanely fast, and has a concurrency model that’s easy to use and read. LLMs are great at using Go tooling to sanity check along the way. It’s easy to write shitty Go but it’s really pleasant to work with if you find those things compelling.

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#183

Post by [deleted] »

hirvi74 wrote: post #171
bensyverson wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use Go. LLMs have seen a ton of it, they write it well, it compiles practically instantly, and it has all the advantages of a typed compiled language. I created a big Python codebase using AI, and the LLM constantly guesses arguments or dictionary formats wrong. Unit tests and stuff like pydantic help, but it's better to avoid that whole class of runtime errors altogether.

But what is the selling point for Go? I get that it is allegedly hailed to be a simple language with basically no batteries included, but why is that a selling point? Does Go excel at anything no other language does?

[deleted]

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#184

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

hirvi74 wrote: post #182
vhantz wrote: post #112

> A shipped app, in a language nobody on the team knew Great! Let's look back on this not too far in the future.

Why? Just job hop in 12-18 months, and that will be someone else's problem.

They'll just have an LLM translate it to another language...

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#185

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

__mharrison__ wrote: post #20

AI's are really good with Python. Quick turnaround. Easy to read. Tons of training data/examples. Many of the same reasons we wrote Python before. Another benefit to using Python, is if you subscribe to writing/vibing a throwaway version first, a Python version is 100x better than a spec. (Disclaimer: I teach Python and AI for a living and am doing a tutorial at pycon this week, Beyond vibe coding. Am also using othe…

I've found the opposite.

If you want your code to actually work, LLMs are far worse at coding in Python than in something like Rust.

Sure, if you just want your code to pass the one test they wrote and work in the one case they coded for, Python is fine.

A lot of people think this is fine, until they actually do something with what they've built besides just... build it.

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#186

Post by ttflee »

dakiol wrote: post #29
__mharrison__ wrote: post #20

AI's are really good with Python. Quick turnaround. Easy to read. Tons of training data/examples. Many of the same reasons we wrote Python before. Another benefit to using Python, is if you subscribe to writing/vibing a throwaway version first, a Python version is 100x better than a spec. (Disclaimer: I teach Python and AI for a living and am doing a tutorial at pycon this week, Beyond vibe coding. Am also using othe…

Problem with Python and other non-strict typed languages is that if you let an LLM to write some stuff, you cannot truly be confident that nothing has broken. Even if your tests all pass. The LLM could have broken some path that only gets run in production in a very specific case. At least with strongly-typed languages you get a compiler error. In big codebases is non-negotiable

Perhaps we could do it in Python in the first pass for validation purpose. And then vibe rewrite it in Haskell.

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#187

Post by khimaros »

chickenman_98 wrote: post #181
hirvi74 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what is the selling point for Go? I get that it is allegedly hailed to be a simple language with basically no batteries included, but why is that a selling point? Does Go excel at anything no other language does?

I think that’s sort of the selling point no? It’s really boring. It has like -10 keywords, compiles insanely fast, and has a concurrency model that’s easy to use and read. LLMs are great at using Go tooling to sanity check along the way. It’s easy to write shitty Go but it’s really pleasant to work with if you find those things compelling.

don't you worry about garbage collection?

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#188

Post by enneff »

hirvi74 wrote: post #171
bensyverson wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use Go. LLMs have seen a ton of it, they write it well, it compiles practically instantly, and it has all the advantages of a typed compiled language. I created a big Python codebase using AI, and the LLM constantly guesses arguments or dictionary formats wrong. Unit tests and stuff like pydantic help, but it's better to avoid that whole class of runtime errors altogether.

But what is the selling point for Go? I get that it is allegedly hailed to be a simple language with basically no batteries included, but why is that a selling point? Does Go excel at anything no other language does?

For one thing it’s statically typed and has many fewer foot guns than Python, so the llm-produced code is more likely to do what you expect.

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#189

Post by mountainriver »

bensyverson wrote: post #144
_boffin_ wrote: post #80

Read the first few comments and surprised I didn’t see it, but training data. The voluminous amount of Python in the training data. I could write in brainfuck with ai, but I presume, wouldn’t get the same results than if going with python. My follow up question: with AI now, why care about a lang until you need to?

Just use Go. LLMs have seen a ton of it, they write it well, it compiles practically instantly, and it has all the advantages of a typed compiled language. I created a big Python codebase using AI, and the LLM constantly guesses arguments or dictionary formats wrong. Unit tests and stuff like pydantic help, but it's better to avoid that whole class of runtime errors altogether.

Why? Go has a GC, is basically incompatible with C and very limited overall

Re: If AI writes your code, why use Python?

#190

Post by camdenreslink »

khimaros wrote: post #187
chickenman_98 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s sort of the selling point no? It’s really boring. It has like -10 keywords, compiles insanely fast, and has a concurrency model that’s easy to use and read. LLMs are great at using Go tooling to sanity check along the way. It’s easy to write shitty Go but it’s really pleasant to work with if you find those things compelling.

don't you worry about garbage collection?

If you were using Python, then probably not.
Post reply on HN