How I write code using Cursor

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. It is nice the AI can figure out which text to transform based on context, but not too impressive. I could select one ":, use "Select All Occurrences", press left, then ctrl+shift+left to select all the keys.

2. Generate boilerplate from documentation. Boilerplate are tedious, but not really time-consuming. How many of you spend 90% of time writing boilerplate instead of the core logic of the project? If a language/framework (Java used to be, not sure about now) requires me to spend that much time on boilerplate, that's a language to be ditched/fixed.

3. Turn problem description into a block of concurrency code. Unlike the boilerplate, these code are more complicated. If I already know the area, I don't need AI's help to begin with. If I don't know, how can I trust the generated code to be correct? It could miss a corner case that my question didn't specify, which I don't yet know existing myself. In the end, I still need to spend time learning Python concurrency, then I'll be writing the same code myself in no time.

In summary, my experience about AI is that if the question is easy (e.g. easy to find exactly same question in StackOverflow), their answer is highly accurate. But if it is a unique question, their accuracy drops quickly. But it is the latter case where we spend most of the time on.

I don't find figuring out the syntax of a new language interesting. There's absolutely no fun in that. I know what I want to do and already understand the concepts behind it, that was the fun part to learn.

That should be when you move to more sophistcated (and also complex/complicated) languages that relieve you from as much of this boilerplate as possible.

The rest is then general design and archiceture, where LLMs really don't help much with. What they are really good for is to get an idea of possible options in spaces were you have little experience or to quickly explain and summarize specific solutions and their pros and cons. But I tried to make it pick a solution based on the constraints and even with many tries and careful descriptions, the results were really bad.

I am the least knowledgeable user of emacs ever, however just some notes as I read this

> For example, suppose I have a block of code with variable names in under_score notation that I want to convert to camelCase. It is sufficient to rename one instance of one variable, and then tab through all the lines that should be updated, including the other related variables.

For me that would be :%s/camel_case/camelCase/gc then yyyyyynyyyy as I confirm each change. Or if it's across a project, then put cursor on word, SPC p % (M-x projectile-replace-regexp), RET on the word, camelCase, yyyynyyynynn as it brings me through all files to confirm. There's probably even better smarter ways than that, I learn "just enough to get it done" and move on, to my continual detriment.

> Many times it will suggest imports when I add a dependency in Python or Go.

I can write a function in python or typescript and if I define a type like:

    function(post: Po

and wait a half second, I'll be given a dropdown of options that include the Post type from Prisma. If I navigate to that (C-J) and press RET, it'll auto-complete the type, and then add the import to the top, either as a new line or included with the import object if something's already being imported from Prisma. The same works for Python, haven't tried other. I'm guessing this functionality comes from LSP? Actually not sure lol. Like I said, least knowledgeable emacs user.

As for boilerplate, my understanding is most emacs people have a bunch of snippets they use, or they use snippet libraries for common languages like tsx or whatever. I don't know how to use these so I don't.

I still intend to try cursor since my boss thinks it might improve productivity and thus wants me to see if that's true, and I don't want to be some kind of technophobe, however I remain skeptical that these built-in tools are at least any more useful than me just quickly opening a chatgpt window in my browser and pasting some code in, with the downside of me losing all my bindings.

My spacemacs config: https://github.com/komali2/Configs/blob/master/emacs/.spacem...

Ok, so… I’m looking at the Python example with HTTP Endpoints and I already have questions.

Why both functions are inlined and why FastAPI is used at all. I’m also not seeing any network bindings. Is it bound to local host (doubt it) or does it immediately bind to all interfaces.

It’s a 3 second thought from looking at Python code that I know only enough to write small and buggy utilities (yet Python is widely popular - so LLM have ton of data learned in). I know it’s a demo only but this video strengthen my feeling about drop of critical thinking and a raise of McDonalds productivity.

McDonalds is not bad: it’s great when you are somewhere you don’t know and not feeling well. They have same menu almost everywhere and it’s like 99% safe due to process standardization. Plus they can get you satiated in 20 minutes or less. It’s still type of food that you can’t really feed on for long; and if you do, there will be consequences.

The silver lining of it is that it most likely cut off all people from the field who hate the domain but love the money, as it’s exactly the problem it automatizes away.