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If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

stephenramsay.net

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Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#541

Post by anon84873628 »

goatlover wrote: post #452
anon84873628 wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bet is that it will be good enough to devise the requirements. They already can brainstorm new features and make roadmaps. If you give them more context about the business strategy/goals then they will make better guesses. If you give them more details about the user personas / feedback / etc they will prioritize better. We're still just working our way up the ladder of systematizing that context, building better…

If it gets to that point, why is the customer even talking to a software company? Just have the AI build whatever. And if an AI assistant can synthesize every piece of business information, why is there a need for a new company? The end user can just ask it to do whatever.

Maybe yes. It takes time for those structures to "compact" and for systems to realign.

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#542

Post by d_tr »

Barrin92 wrote: post #54

>Vibe coding actually works. It creates robust, complex systems that work. No it doesn't. Just for the fun of it because I'm somewhat familiar with the VLC codebase I tried to fix some bugs with "agentic tooling" and "vibe coding". And it just produces crap. Which is one metric I'd propose for the usefulness of these tools, why aren't they fixing real bugs in the large open source codebases of this world? You'd be a…

Imagine the kind of garbage that some people consider "robust, working code"...

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#543

Post by przemub »

vbezhenar wrote: post #37
stared wrote: post #5

There was a recent discussion, “Why AI Needs Hard Rules, Not Vibe Checks” ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152838 ). We need as many checks as possible - and ideally ones that come for free (e.g., guaranteed by types, lifetimes, etc.) - which is why Rust might be the language for vibe coding. Without checks and feedback, LLMs can easily generate unsafe code. So even if they can generate C or Assembly that wor…

Why Rust? Haskell is gold standard here.

There isn’t enough code and resources to steal learn from. And I mean not only the language but the paradigm.

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#544

Post by rjmunro »

My experience of vibe coding is that the agent makes as many mistakes as me, it just types faster than I do. So using the most safe and typed language possible is still a good idea.

Also I want to understand the code as much as possible - sometimes the agent overcomplicates things and I can make suggestions to simplify. But if it's writing in a language only it can understand, that's going to be harder for me.

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#545

Post by hugs »

choeger wrote: post #454

The answer is type-safety. LLMs produce errors, as do humans. A language with carefully designed semantics and a well-implemented safety checker (or maybe even a proof assistant) will help express much more correct code. I've had the most success running Claude iteratively with mypy and pytest. But it regularly wants to just delete the tests or get rid of static typing. A language like Haskell augmented with contract…

this is why i like (and vibe code in!) nim. it's python-ish enough, strongly typed, and creates fast, compiled binaries.

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#547

Post by mlinhares »

gitremote wrote: post #33

Software development jobs must be very diverse if even this anti-vibe-coding guy thinks AI coding definitely makes developers more productive. In my work, the bigger bottleneck to productivity is that very few people can correctly articulate requirements. I work in backend, API development, which is completely different from fullstack development with backend development. If you ask PMs about backend requirements, th…

Is there anyone doing dev work that operates in an environment where people can clearly articulate what they want? I've never worked in a place like that in 20 years doing software.

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#548

Post by ericmcer »

pron wrote: post #238
gitremote wrote: post #33

Software development jobs must be very diverse if even this anti-vibe-coding guy thinks AI coding definitely makes developers more productive. In my work, the bigger bottleneck to productivity is that very few people can correctly articulate requirements. I work in backend, API development, which is completely different from fullstack development with backend development. If you ask PMs about backend requirements, th…

The thing is that some imagined AI that can reliably produce reliable software will also likely be able to be smart enough to come up with the requirements on its own. If vibe coding is that capable, then even vibe coding itself is redundant. In other words, vibe coding cannot possibly be "the future", because the moment vibe coding can do all that, vibe coding doesn't need to exist. The converse is that if vibe codi…

What do you mean "come up with the requirements"? Like if self-driving cars got so good that they didn't just drive you somewhere but decided where you should go?

Re: If you're going to vibe code, why not do it in C?

#549

Post by throwuxiytayq »

whiatp wrote: post #253
markstos wrote: post #105

I have successfully vibe-coded features in C. I still don't like C. The agent forgets to free memory latter just like a human would and has to go back and fix it later. On the other hand, I've enjoyed vibe coding Rust more, because I'm interested in Rust and felt like my understanding approved along they way as I saw what code was produced. A lot of coding "talent" isn't skill with the language, it's learning all the…

Something I've noticed that I never really see called out is how easy it is to review rust code diffs. I spent a lot of my career maintaining company internal forks of large open source C programs, but recently have been working in rust. The things I spent a lot of time chasing down while reviewing C code diffs, particularly of newer team members, is if they paid attention to all the memory assumptions that were non-…

How do LLMs deal with Rust (compared to other languages)? I think this might actually be the time to finally give the language a try. LLMs really lowered the barrier for staying productive while learning.
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