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I am yet to to come across a programming task where ChatGPT saved me time. For a start, most of my work is about using internal APIs. But nevermind. Sometimes

I am yet to to come across a programming task where ChatGPT saved me time. For a start, most of my work is about using internal APIs. But nevermind. Sometimes I come across a generic programming problem. ChatGPT get me to 80% of a solution. Getting it from there to a 100% solution takes as long as doing it from scratch. Just my $0.02

snapcaster 3y ago
Have you considered that it may be a personal skill issue? I'm not saying it is, but it seems like people with this opinion never seem to consider maybe they aren't using it properly or don't get it
- elzbardico 3y ago
  The reverse could also be true. Some people could be not able to figure out that the code GPT produced is not good because they lack the skill level to review it efficiently.
- rich_sasha 3y ago
  Well, maybe. But it seems to me this somewhat defeats the purpose. If I tell ChatGPT to write me, say, a sorting algorithm (which I'm sure it can do), but if I ask it _wrongly_ it gives me a deceptively looking lemon of a solution, that's a liability. Conversely, could you share an example of a nontrivial, practical programming problem ChatGPT can solve, but only if you use it right?
  - mewpmewp2 3y ago
    For coding it's mostly Copilot that saves time. Although ChatGPT in some cases as well, but not as reliably or frequently.
    - throwaway4aday 3y ago
      Agree, Copilot is a huge speed boost for stubbing things out, auto-generating the dead simple parts, and refactoring. ChatGPT is awesome for rubberducking, pair programming, brainstorming, and figuring out what that thing that you kind of remember is called. We aren't at the point where we can just say "robot, do my work" but it's for sure good enough to take care of the boring stuff and be a sounding board.
- datavirtue 3y ago
  A lot of this attitude is seething below the surface these days. It's like linkedin. You may not like the thought of it but you better get over it unless you want a lot of opportunity to whiff by you unnoticed. Senior devs have an attitude against using chat gpt for some reason. Luddites. Use it or lose it.
  - yoyohello13 3y ago
    Maybe the senior devs just don't find it as useful as junior devs do. Or maybe the senior devs are better at picking apart the code being generated and finding the flaws. I'm a senior dev at a python shop and I almost never find the solutions GPT4 gives in Python to be very good. However, I've been learning some C# lately in my free time and I find those solutions to be pretty good. I have a feeling I find the C# solutions higher quality, because I'm not experienced enough to see the problems.
    - neonsunset 3y ago
      Haha I have the exact same experience as you except swap the languages...that one feeling you get when you are reading a newspaper article you are expert on and suddenly realize how inaccurate everything is.
  - rich_sasha 3y ago
    Oh I'm keen for an unpaid robot to do a lot of my job for me. I just haven't been able to outsource that. Whenever I try, it's more work to fix its errors than to do it from scratch. I would really like to know what I'm doing wrong (or if everyone else is in the same boat).
    - datavirtue 3y ago
      You have be very specific in your prompts. "Senior engineers" are most likely treating it like a Google search from 2005.
pphysch 3y ago
ChatGPT/Bard is good for answering documentation or common syntax questions. For actual programming, you should use a proper AI "copilot" that actually integrates into the context of your IDE, and therefore understands the syntax of your internal APIs to some extent. You will save time copy-pasting and get better results.
BeetleB 3y ago
Where it saves me time is when using a framework I'm not used to - it more often than not solves my problem (but not by a large stretch - perhaps 60% of the time). Even more common is getting shell/UNIX commands to do what I want. I don't have all the standard UNIX tools (cut, etc) in my head, and I definitely don't keep all the command line options in my head. GPT4 tells me what I need, and it's much quicker to confirm it via the --help or man pages than craft it myself by reading those pages.
datavirtue 3y ago
I have. Working in legacy code of a language I'm not familiar with (pascal) writing installer scripts with inno setup (pascal, again). "Write me a function to find the installer subkeys for an application by DisplayName and Product name for both 64bit and 32bit applications in pascal." Done. Not something I relished spending days on. Instead I spent thirty seconds and our customers are getting a major update shipped a hell of a lot faster and I can get back to bigger things. I had it write me a handful of sticky functions. The thought of using a search engine for all of that brought tears to my eyes. Just searching simple things anymore is gut wrenching.
- rich_sasha 3y ago
  Yeah, so figuring out how to use a framework seems to crop up quite often. I don't use "big name" frameworks at work so this would be lost on me.

snapcaster 3y ago

Have you considered that it may be a personal skill issue? I'm not saying it is, but it seems like people with this opinion never seem to consider maybe they aren't using it properly or don't get it

elzbardico 3y ago
The reverse could also be true. Some people could be not able to figure out that the code GPT produced is not good because they lack the skill level to review it efficiently.
rich_sasha 3y ago
Well, maybe. But it seems to me this somewhat defeats the purpose. If I tell ChatGPT to write me, say, a sorting algorithm (which I'm sure it can do), but if I ask it _wrongly_ it gives me a deceptively looking lemon of a solution, that's a liability. Conversely, could you share an example of a nontrivial, practical programming problem ChatGPT can solve, but only if you use it right?
- mewpmewp2 3y ago
  For coding it's mostly Copilot that saves time. Although ChatGPT in some cases as well, but not as reliably or frequently.
  - throwaway4aday 3y ago
    Agree, Copilot is a huge speed boost for stubbing things out, auto-generating the dead simple parts, and refactoring. ChatGPT is awesome for rubberducking, pair programming, brainstorming, and figuring out what that thing that you kind of remember is called. We aren't at the point where we can just say "robot, do my work" but it's for sure good enough to take care of the boring stuff and be a sounding board.
datavirtue 3y ago
A lot of this attitude is seething below the surface these days. It's like linkedin. You may not like the thought of it but you better get over it unless you want a lot of opportunity to whiff by you unnoticed. Senior devs have an attitude against using chat gpt for some reason. Luddites. Use it or lose it.
- yoyohello13 3y ago
  Maybe the senior devs just don't find it as useful as junior devs do. Or maybe the senior devs are better at picking apart the code being generated and finding the flaws. I'm a senior dev at a python shop and I almost never find the solutions GPT4 gives in Python to be very good. However, I've been learning some C# lately in my free time and I find those solutions to be pretty good. I have a feeling I find the C# solutions higher quality, because I'm not experienced enough to see the problems.
  - neonsunset 3y ago
    Haha I have the exact same experience as you except swap the languages...that one feeling you get when you are reading a newspaper article you are expert on and suddenly realize how inaccurate everything is.
- rich_sasha 3y ago
  Oh I'm keen for an unpaid robot to do a lot of my job for me. I just haven't been able to outsource that. Whenever I try, it's more work to fix its errors than to do it from scratch. I would really like to know what I'm doing wrong (or if everyone else is in the same boat).
  - datavirtue 3y ago
    You have be very specific in your prompts. "Senior engineers" are most likely treating it like a Google search from 2005.

pphysch 3y ago

ChatGPT/Bard is good for answering documentation or common syntax questions. For actual programming, you should use a proper AI "copilot" that actually integrates into the context of your IDE, and therefore understands the syntax of your internal APIs to some extent. You will save time copy-pasting and get better results.

BeetleB 3y ago

Where it saves me time is when using a framework I'm not used to - it more often than not solves my problem (but not by a large stretch - perhaps 60% of the time). Even more common is getting shell/UNIX commands to do what I want. I don't have all the standard UNIX tools (cut, etc) in my head, and I definitely don't keep all the command line options in my head. GPT4 tells me what I need, and it's much quicker to confirm it via the --help or man pages than craft it myself by reading those pages.

datavirtue 3y ago

I have. Working in legacy code of a language I'm not familiar with (pascal) writing installer scripts with inno setup (pascal, again). "Write me a function to find the installer subkeys for an application by DisplayName and Product name for both 64bit and 32bit applications in pascal." Done. Not something I relished spending days on. Instead I spent thirty seconds and our customers are getting a major update shipped a hell of a lot faster and I can get back to bigger things. I had it write me a handful of sticky functions. The thought of using a search engine for all of that brought tears to my eyes. Just searching simple things anymore is gut wrenching.

rich_sasha 3y ago
Yeah, so figuring out how to use a framework seems to crop up quite often. I don't use "big name" frameworks at work so this would be lost on me.