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> that I couldn't even decipher This is one of the challenges of being a tech lead. Sometimes code is hard to comprehend. In my experience, AI delivered code

> that I couldn't even decipher This is one of the challenges of being a tech lead. Sometimes code is hard to comprehend. In my experience, AI delivered code is no worse than entry level developer code.

anonzzzies 2y ago
But that is a HN bubble thing: I work and worked with seniors with 10-15 years under their belt who have no logic bone in their body; the worst (and an AI does not do that) is when there is a somewhat 'busy' function that has an if or switch statement and, over time, to add features or fix bugs, ifs were added. Now after 5+ years, this function is 15000 lines and is somewhat of a trained neural network adjacent thing; 100s of nested ifs, pages long, that cannot be read and cannot be followed even if you have a brain. This is made by senior staff of, usually, outsourcing companies and I have seen it very many times over the past 40 years. Not entry level, not small companies either. I know a gov tax system which was partly maintained by a very large and well known outsourcing company which has numerous of these puppies in production that no one dares to touch. AI doesn't do stuff like because it could not, which to me, is a good thing. When it gets better, it might start to do it, I don't know. People here live in a bubble where they think the world is full of people who read 'beautiful code', make tests, use git or something instead of zip$date and know how DeMorgan works; by far, most don't, not juniors, not seniors.
- nottorp 2y ago
  > to add features or fix bugs, ifs were added. "Back to that two page function. Yes, I know, it’s just a simple function to display a window, but it has grown little hairs and stuff on it and nobody knows why. Well, I’ll tell you why: those are bug fixes. One of them fixes that bug that Nancy had when she tried to install the thing on a computer that didn’t have Internet Explorer. Another one fixes that bug that occurs in low memory conditions. Another one fixes that bug that occurred when the file is on a floppy disk and the user yanks out the disk in the middle. " https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... Of course, you can try to split the 15000 line function in logical blocks or something, but don't assume the ifs in it are useless.

anonzzzies 2y ago

But that is a HN bubble thing: I work and worked with seniors with 10-15 years under their belt who have no logic bone in their body; the worst (and an AI does not do that) is when there is a somewhat 'busy' function that has an if or switch statement and, over time, to add features or fix bugs, ifs were added. Now after 5+ years, this function is 15000 lines and is somewhat of a trained neural network adjacent thing; 100s of nested ifs, pages long, that cannot be read and cannot be followed even if you have a brain. This is made by senior staff of, usually, outsourcing companies and I have seen it very many times over the past 40 years. Not entry level, not small companies either. I know a gov tax system which was partly maintained by a very large and well known outsourcing company which has numerous of these puppies in production that no one dares to touch. AI doesn't do stuff like because it could not, which to me, is a good thing. When it gets better, it might start to do it, I don't know. People here live in a bubble where they think the world is full of people who read 'beautiful code', make tests, use git or something instead of zip$date and know how DeMorgan works; by far, most don't, not juniors, not seniors.

nottorp 2y ago
> to add features or fix bugs, ifs were added. "Back to that two page function. Yes, I know, it’s just a simple function to display a window, but it has grown little hairs and stuff on it and nobody knows why. Well, I’ll tell you why: those are bug fixes. One of them fixes that bug that Nancy had when she tried to install the thing on a computer that didn’t have Internet Explorer. Another one fixes that bug that occurs in low memory conditions. Another one fixes that bug that occurred when the file is on a floppy disk and the user yanks out the disk in the middle. " https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... Of course, you can try to split the 15000 line function in logical blocks or something, but don't assume the ifs in it are useless.