Just once I'd like to see an article like this from someone who's not currently working on an AI tool (some sort of Khan Academy tutor in this case)
How I write code using Cursor
221–230 of 426 posts
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're happy to have gone from thinking of cloning something to cloning something using a cloning tool quickly?
Your remark raises a question : how much of your daily work is truely original ? Unless you work in R&D i've got some bad news for you..
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Re: How I write code using Cursor
#223It'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…
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Re: How I write code using Cursor
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
The latter is usually much easier than the former on a small scale, so your statement is very surprising.
You find revising correctly looking but potentially wrong code easier than just writing correct code?
Obviously, yes. For the exact same reason it's true for math homework, too!
Most code most people write is trivial in terms of semantics/algorithms. The hard bit is navigating the space of possible solutions: remembering all the APIs you need at the moment - right bits of the standard library, right bits of your codebase, right bits of third-party dependencies - and holding pieces you need in your head while you assemble some flow of data, transforming it between API boundaries as needed. I'm totally fine letting the AI do that - this kind of work is a waste of brain cycles, and it's much easier to follow and verify than to write from scratch.
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#225I also found myself feeling a bit dumb after using Copilot for some time. It felt like I didn’t have to know the API, and it just auto-completed for me. Then I realized I was starting to forget everything and disabled Copilot. Now, when I need something, I ask ChatGPT (like searching on Stack Overflow).
Same. I find myself having to pause and let Copilot finish. At some point, you lose/ not retain anything which you don’t use. I’m not sure I want to give that.
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#226In the article, you mentioned that you've been writing code for 36 years, so don't you feel IDEs like cursor make you feel less competent? Meaning I loved the process of scratching my head over a problem and then coming to a solution but now we have AI Agents solving the problems and optimizing code which takes the fun out of it.
For me it’s like riding an e-bike. More fun because I can go faster and see and do more.
I have a motorbike, yet I prefer cycling because the exercise feels good and is good for me.
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#227i had an interesting experience with cursor. i use it everyday btw i had two csvs. one had an ISBN column, the other had isbn10, isbn13, and isbn. i tried to tell it to write python code that would merge these two sheets by finding the matching isbns. didn't work very well. it was trying to do pandas then i tried to get it to use pure python. it took what felt like an hour of back and forth with terrible results. in…
Chat knows how to merge CSVs with pandas. You just need to know how to prompt it correctly. (Or at least it did at the start of this year when I gave a keynote at PyCon Philippines with that exact use case.)
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#228i had an interesting experience with cursor. i use it everyday btw i had two csvs. one had an ISBN column, the other had isbn10, isbn13, and isbn. i tried to tell it to write python code that would merge these two sheets by finding the matching isbns. didn't work very well. it was trying to do pandas then i tried to get it to use pure python. it took what felt like an hour of back and forth with terrible results. in…
Chat knows how to merge CSVs with pandas. You just need to know how to prompt it correctly. (Or at least it did at the start of this year when I gave a keynote at PyCon Philippines with that exact use case.)
seems simple and obvious but not when the columns have different keys, and there could be one or more keys to match upon. i would be curious to see how you can prompt that?
and you are correct, you just need to know how to prompt it correctly by going back to first principles, just like what i did.
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#229I had horrible experience with a number of ai tools for infra-as-code. My theory is, that in that case it’s hard to predict what to do from context and libraries are at the same time hyper specialized and similar. Example: Creating a node and attaching a volume using ansible looks similar for different cloud providers but there a subtle differences in how to speciy the location etc.
This mirrors my experience.
I've tried various tools (including Cursor) and my problem is that they often (more than 50%) generates non-working code. Why does it do so? Because the ecosystems change so fast and they have been trained on old versions of various libraries (by definition) but when I use the latest version it's a constant uphill battle. And there are so many different combinations of how to use libraries together....
I can't be the only one facing this issue but I didn't see a lot of discussion around this.
So, as someone said: It's generating at most average code and most of it is outdated and sometimes vulnerable because... Well that's what's out there.
I still use these tools but mostly to know how a solution could look roughly and then start to do my own research and to avoid the black page problem. Sometimes just to learn what to even Google for especially in ecosystems I'm unfamiliar with.
Re: How I write code using Cursor
#230I have not tried cursor using a combination of copilot and chatgpt o1. Is cursor considered a better solution? I find it takes the tedium out of work and allows me to focus on the important bits. Right now working on a flutter app and it’s great to be able to quickly try out different ideas iterating quicker towards a final design than before LLMs.
It's a completely different class than copilot in my opinion. Or a higher generation. I find copilot occasionally useful, but very chaotic. Cursor on the other hand is consistently saving me lots of typing every day.
My problem is that i need an inteliJ plugin. Somebody mentioned codebuddy as an alternative.