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A sufficiently detailed spec is code

378 points • by signa11 • today at 2:23 AM • 201 comments • view on HN

Comments

openclaw01 • today at 9:44 AM

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seedpi • today at 8:11 AM

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ruhith • today at 7:22 AM

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cheevly • today at 4:06 AM

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speefers • today at 10:25 AM

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X95_BNB35 • today at 4:45 AM

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ossianericson • today at 6:43 AM

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cranberryturkey • today at 6:08 AM

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Iamkkdasari74 • today at 6:06 AM

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tomlin • today at 4:36 AM

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randyrand • today at 5:18 AM

True. That's why I only write assembly. Imagine a piece of software deciding register spill for you! Unhinged!

charcircuit • today at 4:08 AM

This articles ignores that AI agents have intelligence which means that they can figure out unspecified parts of the spec on their own. There is a lot of the design of software that I don't care about and I'm fine letting AI pick a reasonable approach.

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sjeiuhvdiidi • today at 5:44 AM

Absolute nonsense. A sufficiently detailed "spec" is the code. What is wrong with you people ? Pure nonsense, all they have to offer.

kenjackson • today at 6:16 AM

Code is usually over specified. I recently used AI to build an app for some HS kids. It built what I spec’wd and it was great. Is it what I would’ve coded? Definitely not. In code I have to make a bunch of decisions that I don’t care about. And some of the decisions will seem important to some, but not to others. For example, it built a web page whereas I would’ve built a native app. I didn’t care either way and it doesn’t matter either way. But those sorts of things matter when coding and often don’t matter at all for the goal of the implementation.