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It is a self-reinforcing pattern: the easier it is to generate code, the more code is generated. The more code is generated, the bigger the cost of maintenance
by mkleczek 2y ago
It is a self-reinforcing pattern: the easier it is to generate code, the more code is generated. The more code is generated, the bigger the cost of maintenance is (and the relationship is super-linear).
So every time we generate the same boilerplate we really do copy/paste adding to maintenance costs.
We are amazed looking at the code generation capabilities of LLMs forgetting the goal is to have less code - not more.
- madeofpalk 2y agoMy experience is the opposite - I find large blobs of generated code to be daunting, so I tend to pretty quickly reject them and either write something smaller by hand, or reprompt (in one way for another) for less, easier to review code.
- mkleczek 2y agoAnd what do you do with the generated code? Do you package it in a reusable library so that you don't have to do the same prompting again? Or rather - just because it is so easy to do - you don't bother? If that's the later - that's exactly the pattern I am talking about.
- munk-a 2y agoYou are an excellent user of AI code generation - but your habit is absolutely not the norm and other developers will throw in paragraphs of AI slop mindlessly.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]