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How I write software with LLMs

stavros.io

311–320 of 544 posts

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#311

10-15 years ago HN was the place where everyone showed off their new shiny toys and people would jump over themselves to try some new framework or db or tool. Now, so much negative sentiment about AI coding. I bet if LLMs came 15 years ago, HN would be brimming with excitement. What happened?

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Re: How I write software with LLMs

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also managed to find a 1000 line .cpp file in one of the projects. The article's content doesn't match his apps quality. They don't bring any value. His clock looks completely AI generated.

Remember you're grinding your anti-LLM axe against something a real person made, and that person read your comment.

Don't think it's fair to think any negative comment is from some anti-LLM-axe. I seriously gave you the benefit of the doubt, that was the whole reason I even looked further into your work.

It's no shame to be critical in todays world. Delivering proof is something that holds extra value and if I would create an article about the wonderful things I've created, I'd be extra sure to show it.

I looked at your clock project and when I saw that your updated version and improved version of your clock contained AI artifacts, I concluded that there's no proof of your work.

Sorry to have made that conclusion and I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings.

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#313
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A compiler uses rigorous modeling and testing to ensure that generated code is semantically equivalent. It can do this because it is translating from one formal language to another. Translating a natural prompt on the other hand requires the LLM to make thousands of small decisions that will be different each time you regenerate the artifact. Even ignoring non-determinism, prompt instability means that any small chan…

> A compiler uses rigorous modeling and testing to ensure that generated code is semantically equivalent. Here are the reported miscompilation bugs in GCC so far in 2026. The ones labeled "wrong-code". https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?chfield=%5BBug%20cr... I count 121 of them.

Compilers are some of the largest, most complex pieces of software out there. It should be no surprise that they come with bugs as all other large, complex pieces of software do.

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#314

> One thing I’ve noticed is that different people get wildly different results with LLMs, so I suspect there’s some element of how you’re talking to them that affects the results. It's always easier to blame the prompt and convince yourself that you have some sort of talent in how you talk to LLMs that other's don't. In my experience the differences are mostly in how the code produced by the LLM is reviewed. Develope…

This definitely is the case. I was talking to someone complaining about how llms don't work good. They said it couldn't fix an issue it made. I asked if they gave it any way to validate what it did. They did not, some people really are saying "fix this" instead of saying "x fn is doing y when someone makes a request to it. Please attempt to fix x and validate it by accessing the endpoint after and writing tests" Its…

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Re: How I write software with LLMs

#315

10-15 years ago HN was the place where everyone showed off their new shiny toys and people would jump over themselves to try some new framework or db or tool. Now, so much negative sentiment about AI coding. I bet if LLMs came 15 years ago, HN would be brimming with excitement. What happened?

The difference is that CEOs fired a lot of people, using "AI can replace human coders" as an excuse. Also: there are claims all over the headlines along the lines of "We built something amazing without human coders."

Both claims are loud and are flooding the discussion, but under the hood it's mostly a slop disaster.

So the negative sentiment is a natural response (and a dose of realism).

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#316

10-15 years ago HN was the place where everyone showed off their new shiny toys and people would jump over themselves to try some new framework or db or tool. Now, so much negative sentiment about AI coding. I bet if LLMs came 15 years ago, HN would be brimming with excitement. What happened?

You should be critical. If you made something, you should proof that it works. Especially in todays world. This article contains no proof that their work actually works.

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on how fast that change happens. If 45% of jobs evaporate in a a 5 year period, a complete societal collapse is the likely outcome.

Sounds like influencer nonsense to me. Touch grass. If the people are fed and housed, there's no collapse. And if the billionaire class lets them starve, they will finally go through some things just like the aristocracy in France once did. And I think even Peter Thiel is smarter than that. You can feed yourself for OTOH if what you're really talking about is the long-term collapse in our ludicrous carbon footprint w…

Peter Thiel might be smarter than that but I’m not sure about the other ones.

Look how Musk treated the Twitter devs or Bezos any of his workers or Trump anybody.

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#318

Genuine question: what's the evidence that the architect → developer → reviewer pipeline actually produces better results than just... talking to one strong model in one session? The author uses different models for each role, which I get. But I run production agents on Opus daily and in my experience, if you give it good context and clear direction in a single conversation, the output is already solid. The ceremony…

There's a lot of cargo culting, but it's inevitable in a situation like this where the truth is model dependent and changing the whole time and people have created companies on the premise they can teach you how to use ai well.

Its also inevitable given that we still don't even really know how these models work or what they do at inference time.

We know input/output pairs, when using a reasoning model we can see a separate stream of text that is supposedly insight into what the model is "thinking" during inference, and when using multiple agents we see what text they send to each other. That's it.

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#319

I randomly clicked and scrolled through the source code of Stavrobot - The largest thing I’ve built lately is an alternative to OpenClaw that focuses on security. [1] and that is not great code. I have not used any AI to write code yet but considered trying it out - is this the kind of code I should expect? Or maybe the other way around, has someone an example of some non-trivial code - in size and complexity - writt…

In my experience its in all Language Models' nature to maximize token generation. They have been natively incentivized to generate more where possible. So if you dont put down your parameters tightly it will let loose. I usually put hard requirements of efficient code (less is more) and it gets close to how I would implement it. But like the previous comments say, it all depends on how deeply you integrate yourself into the loop.

Re: How I write software with LLMs

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A compiler uses rigorous modeling and testing to ensure that generated code is semantically equivalent. It can do this because it is translating from one formal language to another. Translating a natural prompt on the other hand requires the LLM to make thousands of small decisions that will be different each time you regenerate the artifact. Even ignoring non-determinism, prompt instability means that any small chan…

I don't see a world where a motivated soul can build a business from a laptop and a token service as a problem. I see it as opportunity. I feel similarly about Hollywood and the creation of media. We're not there in either case yet, but we will be. That's pretty clear. and when I look at the feudal society that is the entertainment industry here, I don't understand why so many of the serfs are trying to perpetuate it…

>If you can build things, AI coding agents will let you build faster and more for the same amount of effort.

But you aren't building, your LLM is. Also, you are only thinking about ways as you, a supposed builder, will benefit from this technology. Have you considered how all previous waves of new technologies have introduced downstream effects that have muddied our societies? LLMs are not unique in this regard, and we should be critical on those who are trying to force them into every device we own.

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