alt Hacker NewsOnce writing code is cheap you don't maintain code. You regenerate it from scratch.
What you maintain is the specification harness, and change that to change the code.
We have to start thinking at a higher level, and see code generation in the same way we currently see compilation.
Replies
manuelabeledo • yesterday at 1:24 PM
Unless the specification is also free of bugs and side effects, there is no guarantee that a rewrite would have fewer bugs.
Plenty of rewrites out there prove that point.
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jimbokun • yesterday at 9:55 PM
Tokens aren’t free.
Far more expensive than compilation and non deterministic so you’re not sure if you will get the same software if you give the AI the same spec.
I'm not sold on that idea yet.
I don't just have LLMs spit out code. I have them spit out code and then I try that code out myself - sometimes via reviewing it and automated tests, sometimes just by using it and confirming it does the right thing.
That upgrades the code to a status of generated and verified. That's a lot more valuable than code that's just generated but hasn't been verified.
If I throw it all away every time I want to make a change I'm also discarding that valuable verification work. I'd rather keep code that I know works!