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Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

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Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#51

Post by johnfn »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #32
brokencode wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it even more sad when people come out of the woodwork on every LLM post to tell us that our positive experiences using LLMs are imagined and we just haven’t realized how bad they are yet.

Could it not be that those positive experiences are just shining a light that the practices before using an LLM were inefficient? It’s more a reflection on the pontificator than anything.

Sure, but even then the perspective makes no sense. The common argument against AI at this point (e.g. OP) is that the only reason people use it is because they are intentionally trying to prop up high valuations - they seem unable to understand that other people have a different experience than they do. You’d think that just because there are some cases where it doesn’t work doesn’t necessarily mean that 100% of it is a sham. At worst it’s just up to individual taste, but that doesn’t mean everyone who doesn’t share your taste is wrong.

Consider cilantro. I’m happy to admit there are people out there who don’t like cilantro. But it’s like the people who don’t like cilantro are inventing increasingly absurd conspiracy theories (“Redis is going to add AI features to get a higher valuation”) to support their viewpoint, rather than the much simpler “some people like a thing I don’t like”.

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#52

Post by skippyboxedhero »

Have used Claude's GitHub action quite a bit now (10-20 issue implementations, a bit more PR reviews), and it is hit and miss so agree with the enhanced coding rather than just letting it run loose.

When the change is very small, self-contained feature/refactor it can mostly work alone, if you have tests that cover the feature then it is relatively safe (and you can do other stuff because it is running in an action, which is a big plus...write the issue and you are done, sometimes I have had Claude write the issue too).

When it gets to a more medium size, it will often produce something that will appear to work but actually doesn't. Maybe I don't have test coverage and it is my fault but it will do this the majority of the time. I have tried writing the issue myself, adding more info to claude.md, letting claude write the issue so it is a language it understands but nothing works, and it is quite frustrating because you spend time on the review and then see something wrong.

And anything bigger, unsurprisingly, it doesn't do well.

PR reviews are good for small/medium tasks too. Bar is lower here though, much is useless but it does catch things I have missed.

So, imo, still quite a way from being able to do things independently. For small tasks, I just get Claude to write the issue, and wait for the PR...that is great. For medium (which is most tasks), I don't need to do much actual coding, just directing Claude...but that means my productivity is still way up.

I did try Gemini but I found that when you let it off the leash and accept all edits, it would go wild. We have Copilot at work reviewing PRs, and it isn't so great. Maybe Gemini better on large codebases where, I assume, Claude will struggle.

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#53

Post by rahimnathwani »

dakiol wrote: post #43
azan_ wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not talking about MCP, but rather an open source tool that can plug into either free and open source LLMs or private ones. That would at least allow us to switch to a free and opensource version if the companies behind the private LLMs go rogue. I'm afraid tho that wouldn't be enough, but it's a starting point. There are open source tools that do exactly that already.

Ah, well that's nice. But every single post I read don't mention them? So, I assume they are not popular for some reason. Again, my main point here is: the normalization of using private LLMs. I don't see anyone talking about it; we are all just handing over a huge part of what it means to build software to a couple of enterprises whose goal is, of course, to maximize profit. So, yeah, perhaps I'm overthinking I don'…

  But every single post I read don't mention them?
Why would they?

Does every single post about a Jetbrains feature mention that you can easily switch from Jetbrains to an open source editor like VS Code or vim?

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#54

Post by dakiol »

throwaway8879p wrote: post #48
dakiol wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a big difference: I do use Jetbrains IDEs (they are nice), but I can switch to vim (or vscode) any time if I need to (e.g., let's say Jetbrains increase their price to a point that doesn't make sense, or perhaps they introduce a pervasive feature that cannot be disabled). The problem with paid LLMs is that one cannot easily switch to open-source ones (because they are not as good as the paid ones). So, it's a d…

People who understand the importance of this choice but still opt for closed source software are the worst of the worst. You won’t be able to switch to a meaningful vim if you channel your support to closed source software, not for long. Best to put money where the mouth is.

I don't contribute to vim precisely, but I do contribute to other open source projects. So, I do like to keep this balance between making open source tools better over time and using paid alternatives. I don't think that's possible tho with LLMs at the moment (and I dont think it would be possible in the future, but ofc i could be wrong).

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#55

Post by fellowniusmonk »

neuronexmachina wrote: post #36
on_the_train wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If LLMs were actually useful, there would be no need to scream it everywhere. On the contrary: it would be a guarded secret.

In my experience, devs generally aren't secretive about tools they find useful.

People are insane, you can artificially pine for the simpler betters times made up in your mind when you could give oracle all your money.

But I would stake my very life on the fact that the movement by developers we call open-source is the single greatest community and ethos humanity has ever created.

Of course it inherits from enlightenment and other thinking, it doesn't exist in a vacuum, but it is an extension of the ideologies that came before it.

I challenge anyone to come up with any single modern subcultures that has tangibly generated more that touches more lives, moves more weight, travels farther, effects humanity more every single day from the moment they wake up than the open source software community (in the catholic sense obviously).

Both in moral goodness and in measurable improvement in standard of living and understanding of the universe.

Some people's memories are very short indeed, all who pine pine for who they imagined they were and are consumed by a memetic desire of their imagined selves.

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#56

Post by alwillis »

on_the_train wrote: post #26
brokencode wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it even more sad when people come out of the woodwork on every LLM post to tell us that our positive experiences using LLMs are imagined and we just haven’t realized how bad they are yet.

If LLMs were actually useful, there would be no need to scream it everywhere. On the contrary: it would be a guarded secret.

If LLMs were actually useful, there would be no need to scream it everywhere. On the contrary: it would be a guarded secret.

LLMs are useful—but there’s no way such an innovation should be a “guarded secret” even at this early stage.

It’s like saying spreadsheets should have remained a secret when they amplified what people could do when they became mainstream.

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#57

Post by syntheticnature »

antirez wrote: post #35
bgwalter wrote: post #16

Translation: His company will launch "AI" products in order to get funding or better compete with Valkey. I find it very sad that people who have been really productive without "AI" now go out of their way to find small anecdotal evidence for "AI".

Did you read my post? I hope you didn’t. This post has nothing to do with Redis and is even a follow up to a post I wrote before rejoining the company.

This is HN. We don't read posts here.

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#58

Post by cratermoon »

brokencode wrote: post #23
bgwalter wrote: post #16

Translation: His company will launch "AI" products in order to get funding or better compete with Valkey. I find it very sad that people who have been really productive without "AI" now go out of their way to find small anecdotal evidence for "AI".

I find it even more sad when people come out of the woodwork on every LLM post to tell us that our positive experiences using LLMs are imagined and we just haven’t realized how bad they are yet.

We don't just tell you they were imagined, we can provide receipts.

https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#59

Post by skippyboxedhero »

brokencode wrote: post #23
bgwalter wrote: post #16

Translation: His company will launch "AI" products in order to get funding or better compete with Valkey. I find it very sad that people who have been really productive without "AI" now go out of their way to find small anecdotal evidence for "AI".

I find it even more sad when people come out of the woodwork on every LLM post to tell us that our positive experiences using LLMs are imagined and we just haven’t realized how bad they are yet.

Some people got into coding to code, rather than build things.

If the AI is doing the coding then that is a threat to some people. I am not sure why, LLMs can be good and you can enjoy coding...those things are unrelated. The logic seems to be that if LLMs are good then coding is less fun, lol.

Re: Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update

#60

Post by [deleted] »

dakiol wrote: post #43
azan_ wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not talking about MCP, but rather an open source tool that can plug into either free and open source LLMs or private ones. That would at least allow us to switch to a free and opensource version if the companies behind the private LLMs go rogue. I'm afraid tho that wouldn't be enough, but it's a starting point. There are open source tools that do exactly that already.

Ah, well that's nice. But every single post I read don't mention them? So, I assume they are not popular for some reason. Again, my main point here is: the normalization of using private LLMs. I don't see anyone talking about it; we are all just handing over a huge part of what it means to build software to a couple of enterprises whose goal is, of course, to maximize profit. So, yeah, perhaps I'm overthinking I don'…

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