4 ms·
It turns out that LLMs are really good at writing bash too. even perl! maybe we should rethink some of these lost bits because we no longer need to worry about
by jghn 3mo ago
It turns out that LLMs are really good at writing bash too. even perl! maybe we should rethink some of these lost bits because we no longer need to worry about the arcane parts.
- axus 3mo agoAn LLM taught me how to use the shell colon. Shell scripts are short enough that it's been worth my time to edit the AI's work.
- AlecSchueler 3mo agoDefine "really good?" I don't think I've ever had them produce a script that I didn't need to correct in some way. They can write it, that's true, but we still need to be able to read it.
- jghn 3mo agoFair. I'm comparing it to the output I see generated in more mainstream, day to day, languages. I'm not going to bother to get into an argument on if the frontier models can generate amazing code in general. What I've found is I can get get the frontier models to generate bash scripts, perl one liners, etc that do exactly what I need at roughly the same quality as any other code it generates.
- AlecSchueler 3mo ago100% They're super useful and I often use them to generate bash scripts of, but that's exactly how I know how important it is to check their work! I'm a shell scripter at heart, the arcane stuff has always been a delight for me, so I've driven them to do some pretty complex stuff where previously I would have "copped out" and used python. I'd say the general adage of them being at the level of a very talent junior holds true.
- Arshad-Talpur 3mo agoI agree with you, instead of working on creating a bash script if we just sit as a senior developer ,check and correct what is needed is the way forward, it kind a remind me Pair programming when one do the scripting and other corrects it
- nullsanity 3mo ago[dead]
- nomel 3mo agoBash scripts requires "set -eu" at minimum, when written by LLM or human. It's the only language terrible enough to make the default behavior ignore undefined variables, commands, and execution errors, and happily continue executing whatever was produced by me smashing my hands on the keyboard, until the end of the file, while returning an exit code of 0, claiming complete success.
- shric 3mo ago“Only language” eh? I only have a passing familiarity or very distant memory so could be wrong but I’d say these are the same: Perl (needs use strict) Ancient VB/VBA/VB script Original PHP (no idea about modern) PowerShell Old Windows/DOS batch
- _bernd 3mo ago> Bash scripts requires "set -eu" at minimum, when written by LLM or human. No. It does not. Just write good scripts and catch errors and handle them. That's the same more less with every language. And bash can be written in a way that it is sane and readable and maintainable. Just because you have seen a lot of junk in the language does not make the language bad per se. Sure there are a lot of languages "features" which are more then questionable but I want to rise again the point that it has its place and can be used in a good way.
- valleyer 3mo agoAh yes, the Feynman Algorithm for shell scripting.
- 3mo ago
- Gigachad 3mo agoI have seen them write massively more complex bash scripts than any normal person would ever attempt, but the failure rate is absurdly high compared to when they write sane typed languages.
- garethrowlands 3mo agoI have some absolutely amazing bash scripts that I would never have contemplated making myself in bash. And they'd only have been somewhat better in python. Claude for the win!