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I think there may be a difference in kind here than with a lot of previous labor-saving abstractions. To use an LLM, you still need to know the language you ar
by pclmulqdq 3y ago
I think there may be a difference in kind here than with a lot of previous labor-saving abstractions.
To use an LLM, you still need to know the language you are using it to write. You don't need to know C or assembly as a Python/JS programmer today, but you do need to know JS to be an LLM-heavy JS programmer.
- ungreased0675 3y agoNot really? I don’t know JavaScript, just HTML and CSS. I still can make decent web app MVPs using copilot to fill in the blanks.
- Jackson_Fleck 3y agoOkay, but if you don't know what the JS is doing and why how are you ever going to architect stuff efficiently or think up more complex things in the abstract? I fail to see how you can just know HTML and CSS, that's like saying you have the alphabet down but somebody else can speak or write for you. HTML and CSS are just markup and style languages, it isn't really code. CoPilot is just blundering along using what it has learned from elsewhere - which is not always correct.
- joshstrange 3y ago> You don't need to know C or assembly as a Python/JS programmer today, I agree, not everyone does. Maybe we have progressed to the point we can all say those people are wrong and their arguments were always wrong, maybe not. > but you do need to know JS to be an LLM-heavy JS programmer. I also agree. That's my whole point, you do need to know the language to be able to effectively use an LLM. My issue is with people who immediately reject LLMs as a net-bad because they do part of the job for you. I reeks of "well I had to do it the hard way so you do too" which I cannot abide and immediately flips the bozo bit on them for me.