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How I write code using Cursor

arguingwithalgorithms.com

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Re: How I write code using Cursor

#91

Post by viraptor »

exe34 wrote: post #81
viraptor wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a tool. You get used to new tools. These days I can easily process "did something interesting appear" in the peripheral vision at the same time as continuing to type. But the most useful things don't happen while I write. Instead it's the small edits that immediately come up with "would you also like to change these other 3 things to make your change work?" Those happen in the natural breaks anyway, as I start s…

> in the peripheral vision this seems physiologically unlikely.

We do it all the time. I can type while talking to people. I can also read/process the text ahead while saying out loud what I read a few words back. We do a lot of things concurrently when dealing with text - I'm not staring at the cursor when writing code either.

(Unless you meant it literally. No, I didn't mean actual peripheral vision. Just noticing things beyond what I type.)

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#92

Post by danielbln »

benreesman wrote: post #24

I’m doing an experiment in this in real time: I’ve got a bunch of top-flight junior folks, all former Jane and Google and Galois and shit, but all like 24. I’ve also been logging every interaction with an LLM and the exit status of the build on every mtime of every language mode file and all the metadata: I can easily plot when I lean on the thing and when I came out ahead, I can tag diffs that broke CI. I’m measurin…

I don't understand, are you using LLMs purely for information retrieval, like a database (or search index)? I mean sure that's one usecase, but for me the true power of LLMs comes from actually processing and transforming information, not just retrieving it.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#93

Post by viraptor »

namaria wrote: post #86
viraptor wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a tool. You get used to new tools. These days I can easily process "did something interesting appear" in the peripheral vision at the same time as continuing to type. But the most useful things don't happen while I write. Instead it's the small edits that immediately come up with "would you also like to change these other 3 things to make your change work?" Those happen in the natural breaks anyway, as I start s…

A tool that forces me to shift from creating solutions to trying to figure out what might be wrong with some code is entirely detrimental to my workflow.

Is that your actual experience or expectation? If you're just making assumptions, I'd encourage you to give it an actual try. Talking about using Cursor is a bit like talking about riding a bike with someone who never did it. (But yeah, it's totally not for everyone, and that's fine)

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#95

Post by Fizzadar »

I’ve yet to switch to Cursor as my main editor (Sublime still wins on performance by miles, plus no distracting tab anything), but I do hop in when stamping out boilerplate and repetitive code for which it is great, but it’s only a minor performance bump.

I have also used cursor to write Kubernetes client code with great success because the API space is so large it doesn’t fit into my head that well (not often writing such code these days) so that has been incredibly helpful.

So it’s not revolutionising my workflow but certainly a useful tool in some situations.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#96

Post by benreesman »

danielbln wrote: post #92
benreesman wrote: post #24

I’m doing an experiment in this in real time: I’ve got a bunch of top-flight junior folks, all former Jane and Google and Galois and shit, but all like 24. I’ve also been logging every interaction with an LLM and the exit status of the build on every mtime of every language mode file and all the metadata: I can easily plot when I lean on the thing and when I came out ahead, I can tag diffs that broke CI. I’m measurin…

I don't understand, are you using LLMs purely for information retrieval, like a database (or search index)? I mean sure that's one usecase, but for me the true power of LLMs comes from actually processing and transforming information, not just retrieving it.

I have my dots wired up where I basically fire off a completion request any time I select anything in emacs.

I just spend any amount of tokens to build a database of how 4o behaves correlated to everything emacs knows, which is everything. I’m putting down tens of megabytes a day on what exact point they did whatever thing.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#97

Post by sophiacamille »

friggeri wrote: post #17

I recently started using Cursor for all my typescript/react personal projects and the increase in productivity has been staggering. Not only has it helped me execute way faster, similar to the OP I also find that it prevents me from getting sidetracked by premature abstraction/optimization/refactoring. I recently went from an idea for a casual word game (aka wordle) to a fully polished product in about 2h, which woul…

Id love to see your GitHub before and after

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#98

Post by namaria »

viraptor wrote: post #93
namaria wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tool that forces me to shift from creating solutions to trying to figure out what might be wrong with some code is entirely detrimental to my workflow.

Is that your actual experience or expectation? If you're just making assumptions, I'd encourage you to give it an actual try. Talking about using Cursor is a bit like talking about riding a bike with someone who never did it. (But yeah, it's totally not for everyone, and that's fine)

Very early on I took pains to figure out what toolchains gave me traction and which tools produced waste complexity.

I think a lot of the excitement about using LLMs to code is because a lot of teams are stuck in local optima where they need to use noisy tools, and there's a lot of de-noised output available to train LLMs.

This is progress in searching and mitigating bad trade-offs, not in advancing the state of the art.

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#99

Post by benreesman »

benreesman wrote: post #96
danielbln wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand, are you using LLMs purely for information retrieval, like a database (or search index)? I mean sure that's one usecase, but for me the true power of LLMs comes from actually processing and transforming information, not just retrieving it.

I have my dots wired up where I basically fire off a completion request any time I select anything in emacs. I just spend any amount of tokens to build a database of how 4o behaves correlated to everything emacs knows, which is everything. I’m putting down tens of megabytes a day on what exact point they did whatever thing.

I’m actively data-mining OpenAI, they get a bunch of code that they have anyways because they have GitHub, I get arbitrary scope to plot their quantization or whatever with examples.

Flip it on em. You’re the one being logged asshole.

https://youtu.be/un3NkWnHl9Q?si=VOnH2krJkJLRA2BQ

Re: How I write code using Cursor

#100

Post by mewpmewp2 »

vishal-padia wrote: post #2

In 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.

I think you are still thinking just on another level. E.g. you go on a walk, you fantasize about everything you are going to do, and it builds up in your head, then you come back, it is all in your head and AI will help you get it out quickly, but you have already solved the problem for yourself and so you are also able to validate quickly what the AI does.
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