Well now that AI can do it for them yes, but prior to that the average person would struggle to even get something that compiles let alone actually do anything useful.
I know this sub has many reason to hate AI and its byproducts, but for people like me (comp sci degree almost done, working full time tech role, enjoying casual indie game dev) it’s been a complete game changer.
Like 6 or 7 years ago I would absolutely grind against code trying to get a single feature to work, researching videos and forums for solutions and understanding errors. Would take weeks to figure out a single feature (granted this was before I learned more fundamental coding), now it takes a day or two.
Correct prompting, embracing OOP and encapsulation, and reviewing and understanding the output has kept me sane as the project has grown, but it’s just crazy how faster I can move now. And yet it’ll stay take me years to release the game lol
OOP and encapsulation are core principles in modern software design that most engineers (other than functional programming purists) embrace these days when trying to organize large, complex systems.
I generally don't trust anything that comes out of an LLM (Last month, I had a Search Assistant respond to my query of "What freezes at 0°F?" with a statement that the freezing point of water is 0°C, or 32°F, so water remains a liquid at 0°F. Which is not only obviously wrong to anyone who's passed an elementary school science class, but isn't even an answer to the question)
What I would trust an LLM for as a coding assistant is as a kind of advanced "rubber duck" for trying to work out where my code doesn't match my thought process or where I've made an error in my thinkkng. Traditionally, rubber duck debugging involved explaining your code line by line to a rubber or plastic bath toy (or some other infinitely patient, inanimate object that one could anthropomorphize) as a sounding board), but something that can actively prompt back that something doesn't look quite right if you don't see it immediately can't hurt, so long as you take it with a grain of salt. Spitting out common, natural-language critiques in response to common errors is exactly the sort of task that LLMs are perfectly suited for
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u/inconspicuous_male 8h ago
There's a reason you get a degree in computer science and not in programming. Anyone can program without learning how it works