Here's a question we see, especially from AI skeptics: if AI coding is so great, shouldn't we be seeing more new, good software by now?
Here are some answ...
This has been a pretty longstanding problem of evil style paradox with programming productivity claims long before AI. If e.g. something like TDD, or Rust, or functional programming, or whatever lets us in some sense build better and more correct software, why is the software world running on decades old versions of C++ and Java?
Well, I’d say that some of the claims are not just that AI will make you more productive – but that AI will “replace” your job and write software autonomously.
That’s a different kind of claim than “Rust is a productive systems programming language”
C++ and Java were pretty big improvements on the state of the art. As a case, modern operating systems are better in almost every dimension from their ancestors.
Linux? Yes, for sure. Though they sure don’t use a decade old version of C or Rust. And Linus has been unambiguous about productivity gains of tools like git and syzkaller amongst others.
But, when I said “operating system”, I meant far more than just a kernel.
This has been a pretty longstanding problem of evil style paradox with programming productivity claims long before AI. If e.g. something like TDD, or Rust, or functional programming, or whatever lets us in some sense build better and more correct software, why is the software world running on decades old versions of C++ and Java?
score 1 · canonical
Well, I’d say that some of the claims are not just that AI will make you more productive – but that AI will “replace” your job and write software autonomously.
That’s a different kind of claim than “Rust is a productive systems programming language”
score 1 · canonical
C++ and Java were pretty big improvements on the state of the art. As a case, modern operating systems are better in almost every dimension from their ancestors.
score 2 · canonical
Biggest modern operating system is mainly built in C though, with a smattering of Rust.
score 1 · canonical
Linux? Yes, for sure. Though they sure don’t use a decade old version of C or Rust. And Linus has been unambiguous about productivity gains of tools like git and syzkaller amongst others.
But, when I said “operating system”, I meant far more than just a kernel.
score 1 · canonical