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> I find coding agents can produce very high quality tests if and only if you give them detailed guidance and good starting examples. I find this to be true fo

> I find coding agents can produce very high quality tests if and only if you give them detailed guidance and good starting examples. I find this to be true for all AI coding, period. When I have the problem fully solved in my head, and I write the instructions to explicitly and fully describe my solution, the code that is generated works remarkably well. If I am not sure how it should work and give more vague instructions, things don't work so well.

stavros 1y ago
Yeah, same. Usually I'll ask the agent for a few alternatives, to make sure I'm not missing something, but the solution I wanted tends to be the best one. I also get into a lot of me saying "hm, why are you doing it that way?" "Oh yeah, that isn't actually going to work, sorry".
teaearlgraycold 1y ago
Yes, but the act of writing code is an important part of figuring out what you need. So I’m left wondering how much of a prefect the AI can actually help with. To be clear I do use AI for some code gen. But I try to use it less than I see others use it.
- cortesoft 1y ago
  Eh, I think my decades of experience writing my own code was necessary for me to develop the skills to be able to precisely tell the AI what to build, but I don't think I need to (always) write new code to know how to know what I need. Now, if the thing I am building requires a technology I am not familiar with, I will spend some time reading and writing some simple test code to learn how it works, but once I understand it I can then let the AI build from scratch. Of course, this does rely on the fact that I have years of coding experience that came prior to AI, and I do wonder how new coders can do it without putting in the work to learn how to build working software without AI before using AI.
  - teaearlgraycold 1y ago
    It’s not just about new tech. It’s about new businesses and projects.

stavros 1y ago

Yeah, same. Usually I'll ask the agent for a few alternatives, to make sure I'm not missing something, but the solution I wanted tends to be the best one. I also get into a lot of me saying "hm, why are you doing it that way?" "Oh yeah, that isn't actually going to work, sorry".

teaearlgraycold 1y ago

Yes, but the act of writing code is an important part of figuring out what you need. So I’m left wondering how much of a prefect the AI can actually help with. To be clear I do use AI for some code gen. But I try to use it less than I see others use it.

cortesoft 1y ago
Eh, I think my decades of experience writing my own code was necessary for me to develop the skills to be able to precisely tell the AI what to build, but I don't think I need to (always) write new code to know how to know what I need. Now, if the thing I am building requires a technology I am not familiar with, I will spend some time reading and writing some simple test code to learn how it works, but once I understand it I can then let the AI build from scratch. Of course, this does rely on the fact that I have years of coding experience that came prior to AI, and I do wonder how new coders can do it without putting in the work to learn how to build working software without AI before using AI.
- teaearlgraycold 1y ago
  It’s not just about new tech. It’s about new businesses and projects.