Ask HN: Last time you wrote code?

5 points by blinkbat 2 days ago

do you keep up with writing syntax? do you do it as a hobby or try to weave it into work? do you do it from scratch or only when it's easier than prompting?

apothegm a day ago

Any time the autocomplete doesn’t understand what I’m trying to accomplish, so several times per hour.

LLMs will repeat the patterns they see, and I’m trying to whip a legacy codebase into decent shape before the next phase of feature growth, so no fully generative coding for anything beyond tests and throwaways until that’s done.

And TBH, while I adore neither having to type out the nits of syntax nor having to remember the details of certain APIs, I still get far more enjoyment from working at the code level than the prompt level. So a good AI autocomplete makes for very enjoyable and productive coding.

dokdev 2 days ago

A few hours ago. I am learning a new language (rust) so I disabled auto complete and AI suggestions. Otherwise AI becomes more of a distraction than a booster.

But for languages I am more confident (like JS and dart), I usually don't write code and only review it.

If it is a throw-away project (like I am only experimenting something or just need something for one time), I don't event look at the code and only focus on the outcomes.

daemonologist 2 days ago

A couple of hours ago. I do it when I need a small change and already know ~exactly what I want to type (which happens frequently), or when I get fed up with the yapper (which happens a couple times a day).

raw_anon_1111 2 days ago

October 2024. Every line of code since then has been written by AI.

There hasn’t been a quarter before then that I haven’t written some type of code since early 1987

al_borland 2 days ago

Tuesday. I tried prompting the latter half of this week, but found it incredibly unfulfilling. I’ll be writing code again on Monday.

linesofcode 2 days ago

September 2024. I’ll never write a line of syntax again. First it was Cursor now it’s Claude.

CtrlAlt 2 days ago

for work? with all the tools the company provides, only when it’s faster than prompting. so friday.

runjake 20 hours ago

I still regularly write stuff myself to stay in practice, because I suspect as some point, some bubble will burst, and I will not have access to the quality of agentic tooling I have today .

So, today.

gethly 20 hours ago

I usually write code every day but right now I don't have anything important to do. I started writing a graphical text editor / IDE as i wanted to do some GUI stuff, which I never did. But my heart is not in it, so i just randomly write few lines here and there. I am not burnt out, just lack sufficient motivation at this time. But generally i code every day. I had a 6m break from coding 3 years ago and i definitely noticed that I forgot quite a lot of stuff. Although I was back on the horse in few days. But at least I know that the knowledge is not eternal and needs to be constantly engaged.

FergusArgyll 2 days ago

I'm learning my first lisp (emacs lisp), for learning a language I don't want any assistance whatsoever or it'll never stick. I'm just learning it for the pleasure of understanding it so I'm not actually trying to build something fast.

btw; Lisp is poetic and if you've never learned one, you should!

blinkbat 2 days ago

asking because it popped into my head that I hadn't really wrote (or edited more than a few lines of) code in quite a few weeks.