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I can believe people get value out of them. I think I do. But "OH MY GOD EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED THE OLD WAY IS DEAD 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE" - no. If that were tru
by LAC-Tech 2mo ago
I can believe people get value out of them. I think I do.
But "OH MY GOD EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED THE OLD WAY IS DEAD 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE" - no. If that were true, we'd notice it in the software all around us.
- qarl2 2mo agoI think we are noticing it. Are you not? I've shipped three software projects in the last two months. I shipped zero in the preceding year. Right now I'm building a system to decompile MAME ROM games into idiomatic JavaScript. It completes one game in about 3 days - complete with extensive commenting. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure "EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED" but if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking.
- Planktonne 2mo ago> if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking If the people claiming that everything has changed were even a fraction as productive as they think, then it would be visible even to people who weren't looking. As it is, a lot of people are actively looking but still not seeing it.
- qarl2 2mo ago[flagged]
- Planktonne 2mo agoI'm pleased for you, but these tools have been out for many, many weeks, and there are many, many people claiming incredible productivity gains. Where's the rest of it?
- qarl2 2mo agoI just showed you something that would have been considered a miracle one year ago. And your response was "So what - show me another one."
- Planktonne 2mo agoI'm not disputing that it's a hard thing to do, but we had decompilers before; "miracle" is rather stretching it. Even granting that framing though, the claimed increase in productivity isn't a one-off, but asserted for everyone using them; you're claiming mass-produced miracles but trying to depend on a single example.
- qarl2 2mo ago> but we had decompilers before Cite one example of a decompiler that provides English names and comments.
- fragmede 2mo agoSnowboard kids 2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48284494 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48284494 Silent Hill 1 PC https://youtu.be/0niadQJmYx0 https://youtu.be/0niadQJmYx0 Super Smash Bros/other GameCube and Wii games https://www.reddit.com/r/decomps/comments/1uvttvy/moderngekko_a_new_era_for_gamecube_and_wii_recomps/ https://www.reddit.com/r/decomps/comments/1uvttvy/moderngekk...
- overgard 2mo agoI'm sure it's useful for that, but we've had pretty good decompilers before AI.
- qarl2 2mo agoI would love for you to cite a single one. It must take a binary executable and derive English names for the memory addresses.
- overgard 2mo agoI used to use dotPeek all the time back in like 2012. There are also things like Ghidra that the NSA made. I dunno, google them, there are a lot. I'm not saying LLMs aren't useful here, just that it's not a huge deal. Also, why are AI people always making tools to take other people's IP? You are kind of fucking with people's intellectual property without permission it seems like. I'm not saying it's the crime of the century or anything but it's distressing how many AI projects come out of "let me repackage something someone else made"
- chaps 2mo ago"you should probably get your eyes checked." Don't be a jerk. A lot of people have had bad experiences with these systems from people basically saying exactly what you're saying. This "you should get your eyes checked" mentality is pervasive with the nerds who confidently say that their analysis is solid when it's... not. It's a big problem in communities that have non-conventional videogame puzzles for example. Someone will come in, announce some novel solution.... leading to a four hour fight about the efficacy of LLMs, only to find a mistake in their code the next day.. never to be seen again. Mind you, I'm not saying that these systems aren't great at reverse engineering and whatnot. They're spectacularly good at that. But RE is a relatively constrained problem because everything is still right in front of you. For complicated problems where the signal is mixed between noise... less so.
- qarl2 2mo agoAs near as I can tell - your argument boils down to "I've seen other people make mistakes so you must be also."
- chaps 2mo agoIf that's what you got from it, then I hope you have a good life. Be kinder, friend.
- qarl2 2mo agoIf you can point to a single error in my argument I would love to talk to you about it. Otherwise, you have a good life as well.
- chaps 2mo agoMy point is just that you're talking past people and being an asshole in the process. Not everything is about winning an argument. Lower your temperature and you'll have more productive discussions that revolve around disagreements. Cheers.
- qarl2 2mo agoI'd love for HN to explain why I was flagged here for answering: > If the people claiming that everything has changed were even a fraction as productive as they think, then it would be visible even to people who weren't looking. with: > If you can't see this - you should probably get your eyes checked. He is clearly suggesting I am delusional about my productivity gains, and I'm the one who gets flagged. I daresay I'm noticing a bias in the moderation.
- bigstrat2003 2mo ago> if you're not seeing dramatic change, I suspect you're not looking. Ironically, this is the inverse of the very thing you complained about people doing to you.
- qarl2 2mo agoExcept I'm providing evidence.
- xracy 2mo agoI'm seeing more examples of you saying you're providing evidence than of you actually providing evidence. So far I've heard a single anecdote about what you did. That's a pretty far cry from the "evidence" you claim to have dropped on multiple comments.
- qarl2 2mo agoLOL. Providing a counter example is far from just an anecdote.
- vhantz 2mo agoAn anecdote is an anecdote is an anecdote
- qarl2 2mo agoA proof isn't an anecdotal story. The claim was this is not possible. I show it happening. That's a proof. You're confused because the example is my own project. But I'm not merely describing it - I am giving you full access to it to confirm or reject my argument. Not anecdotal. Saying it three times does not make it true.
- chaps 2mo agoWhat things have you tried that didn't go well? At this point, that's more interesting. If you want to have a whack at a hard problem, have a try at the cryptographic puzzle in Noita if you want to see the silly failure modes of these systems. Lots of people have tried to solve it with AI and nothing's budged. If you can solve it, great.
- veqq 2mo ago> I think we are noticing it. Are you not? The software around us seems worse than ever, constantly breaking and significantly worse than 1-3 decades ago.
- LAC-Tech 2mo agoI think we are noticing it. Are you not? I am not. Congratulations on your side project.
- qarl2 2mo agoProjects, plural. And weren't you the one who started this complaining of nastiness?
- qarl2 2mo agoI'm sorry downvoters - it's true. In his opening statement he complained about nastiness and then became extremely nasty himself, when I had said nothing like that to him. Other than just disagree and provide evidence.