Gregory's ServerA good mental model for generative AI programming assistance might be to think of it as an automated pair programmer. You're still responsible for the code you are producing, but your automated pair programmer can chip in with suggestions, look things up for you or even type out full blocks of code based on your prompts
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@williampietri I haven’t in a few years, but when I did one of the things I most appreciated was that the non-typing partner could be looking things up in reference docs or suggestion neat idioms for solving problems - LLMs are great at that kind of thing @simon pair programming with a teenager interrupting your thoughts with inane comments? But also helping occasionally. Just those autocompleted comments really break my flow.  @simon For me, it’s been like having an over-anxious friend trying as hard as possible to be helpful. @simon I always understood the one driving the keyboard wasn't the one coding: the coder had to verbalise what they wanted, but not having to type would allow them to think more. Which seems the other way around to an LLM right now. But it does make me wonder whether a fast enough speech processor and enough IDE context could allow you lead an LLM like that... |
@simon Huh. Do you do much pair programming? Either my experience of pairing or my LLM experience is very different than yours, and I'm trying to figure out which.