How to effectively write quality code with AI

My tricks:

Define data structures manually, ask AI to implement specific state changes. So JSON, C .h or other source files of func sigs and put prompts in there. Never tried the Agents.md monolithic definition file approach

Also I demand it stick to a limited set of processing patterns. Usually dynamic, recursive programming techniques and functions. They just make the most sense to my head and using one style I can spot check faster.

I also demand it avoid making up abstractions and stick to mathematical semantics. Unique namespaces are not relevant to software in the AI era. It's all about using unique vectors as keys to values.

Stick to one behavior or type/object definition per file.

Only allow dependencies that are designed as libraries to begin with. There is a ton of documentation to implement a Vulkan pipeline so just do that. Don't import an entire engine like libgodot.

And for my own agent framework I added observation of my local system telemetry via common Linux files and commands. This data feeds back in to be used to generate right-sized sched_ext schedules and leverage bpf for event driven responses.

Am currently experimenting with generation of small models of my own data. A single path of images for example not the entire Pictures directory. Each small model is spun akin to a Docker container.

LLMs are monolithic (massive) zip files of the entire web. No one really asking for that. And anyone who needs it already has access to the web itself

I wonder at the end of this if it's the still worth the risk?

A lot of how I form my thoughts is driven by writing code, and seeing it on screen, running into its limitations.

Maybe it's the kind of work I'm doing, or maybe I just suck, but the code to me is a forcing mechanism into ironing out the details, and I don't get that when I'm writing a specification.

All this boils down to is that AI wins when it amplifies engineers, not replaces them. And the best code still comes from devs who ultrathink.

The real value that AI provides is the speed at which it works, and its almost human-like ability to “get it” and reasonably handle ambiguity. Almost like tasking a fellow engineer. That’s the value.

By the time you do everything outlined here you’ve basically recreated waterfall and lost all speed advantage. Might as well write the code yourself and just use AI as first-pass peer review on the code you’ve written.

A lot of the things the writer points out also feel like safeguards against the pitfalls of older models.

I do agree with their 12th point. The smaller your task the easier to verify that the model hasn’t lost the plot. It’s better to go fast with smaller updates that can be validated, and the combination of those small updates gives you your final result. That is still agile without going full “specifications document” waterfall.

I can't help but keep finding it ridiculous how everyone now discovers basic best practices (linting, documentation, small incremental changes) that have been known for ages. It's not needed because of AI, you should have been doing it like this before as well.

Remember having to write detailed specs before coding? Then folks realized it was faster and easier to skip the specs and write the code? So now are we back to where we were?

One of the problems with writing detailed specs is it means you understand the problem, but often the problem is not understand - but you learn to understand it through coding and testing.

So where are we now?

I found an easier way that Works For Me (TM). I describe the problem to LLM and ask it to solve it step by step, but strictly in the Ask mode, not Agent. Then I copy or even type the linws to the code. If I wouldn't write the line myself, it doesn't go in, and I iterate some more.

I do allow it to write the tests (lots of typing there), but I break them manually to see how they fail. And I do think about what the tests should cover before asking LLM to tell me (it does come up with some great ideas, but it also doesn't cover all the aspects I find important).

Great tool, but it is very easy to be led astray if you are not careful.

The GSD tool (get-shit-done) automates a very similar process to this, and has been mind-blowing for larger projects and refactors.

https://github.com/glittercowboy/get-shit-done

You still need to know the hard parts: precisely what you want to build, all domain/business knowledge questions solved, but this tool automates the rest of the coding and documentation and testing.

It's going to be a wild future for software development...

Too bad that software developers are carrying water for those who hate them and mock them for being obsolete in 6-12 months, while they are eating caviar (probably evading sanctions) and clink the champagne glasses in Davos:

https://xcancel.com/hamptonism/status/2019434933178306971

And all that after stealing everyone's output.

Some pattern I found from my hobby project.

1. Keep things small and review everything AI written, or 2. Keep things bloated and let AI do whatever it wants within the designated interface.

Initially I drew this line for API service / UI components, but it later expanded to other domains. e.g. For my hobby rust project I try to keep "trait"s to be single responsible, never overlap, easy to understand etc etc. but I never look at AI generated "impl"s as long as it passes some sensible tests and conforming the traits.

Sounds like an awful lot of work and nannying just to avoid writing code yourself. Coding used to be fun and enjoyable once...

Every engineering org should be pleading devs to not let AI write tests. They're awful and sometimes they literally don't even assert the code that was generated and instead assert the code in tests.

How to write good code with AI -> put in as much effort as you did before on 20% more code than you used to work with.

First article about writing code with AI i can get behind 100%. Stuff i already do, stuff i've thought about doing, and at ideas i've never thought doing ("Mark code review levels" especially is a _great_ idea)

Hi i5heu. Given that you seem to use AI tools for generating images and audio versions of your posts, I hope it is not too rude to ask: how much of the post was drafted, written or edited with AI?

The suggestions you make are all sensible but maybe a little bit generic and obvious. Asking ChatGPT to generate advice on effectively writing quality code with AI generates a lot of similar suggestions (albeit less well written).

If this was written with help of AI, I'd personally appreciate a small notice above the blog post. If not, I'd suggest to augment the post with practical examples or anecdotal experience. At the moment, the target group seems to be novice programmers rather than the typical HN reader.

> Use strict linting and formatting rules to ensure code quality and consistency. This will help you and your AI to find issues early.

I've always advocated for using a linter and consistent formatting. But now I'm not so sure. What's the point? If nobody is going to bother reading the code anymore I feel like linting does not matter. I think in 10 years a software application will be very obfuscated implementation code with thousands of very solidly documented test cases and, much like compiled code, how the underlying implementation code looks or is organized won't really matter

That sounds like the advice of someone who doesn't actually write high-quality code. Perhaps a better title would be "how to get something better than pure slop when letting a chatbot code for you" - and then it's not bad advice I suppose. I would still avoid such code if I can help it at all.

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