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Sounds like operator error to me. You need to give LLMs context. Line number isn't good context.
by toephu2 1y ago
Sounds like operator error to me.
You need to give LLMs context. Line number isn't good context.
- meepmorp 1y ago> Line number isn't good context. a line number is plenty of context - it's directly translatable into a range of bytes/characters in the file
- mediaman 1y agoIt's a tool. It's not a human. A line number works great for humans. Today, they're terrible for LLMs. I can choose to use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail and complain about how useless screwdrivers are. Or I can realize when and how to use it. We (including marketing & execs) have made a huge mistake in anthropomorphizing these things, because then we stop treating them like tools that have specific use cases to be used in certain ways, and more like smart humans that don't need that. Maybe one day they'll be there, but today they are screwdrivers. That doesn't make them useless.
- skydhash 1y agoCheck the whole ecosystem around editors, grep tools, debuggers, linting and build tools. One common thing about all of this is line (and column) number so you can integrate them together if you want to automate stuff. Like jumping to errors (quickfix in vim,…), search all files and jump to the occurrences (grep mode in emacs,…), etc…
- nprateem 1y ago...which LLMs don't use as they use tokens instead.
- oneeyedpigeon 1y agoSo do compilers, and they don't seem to have a problem with something as basic as line numbers.
- oneeyedpigeon 1y agoOf all the things I thought I'd read today, "Line number isn't good context" is more wild than I could possibly have imagined.
- ThunderSizzle 1y agoLine numbers are perfect for humans and programs reading files, but LLMs aren't really reading files.
- rs186 1y agoImagine saying to another software engineer "you only gave me the line number, that's not enough context"
- 1718627440 1y agoYou need at least also the version and the filename.