alt Hacker NewsIt entirely depends on the exposure and reliability the code needs. Some code is just a one-off to show a customer what something might look like. I don't care at all how well the code works or what it looks like for something like that. Rapid prototyping is a valid use case for that.
I have also written a C++ code that has to have a runtime of years, meaning there can be absolutely no memory leaks or bugs whatsoever, or TV stops working. I wouldn't have a language model write any of that, at least not without testing the hell out of it and making sure it makes sense to myself.
It's not all or nothing here. These things are tools and should be used as such.
> It entirely depends on the exposure and reliability the code needs.
Ahh, sweet summer child, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard "just hack something together quickly, that's throwaway code", that ended up being a critical lynchpin of a production system - well, I'd probably have at least like a buck or so.
Obviously, to emphasize, this kind of thing happens all the time with human-generated code, but LLMs make the issue a lot worse because it lets you generate a ton of eventual mess so much faster.
Also, I do agree with your primary point (my comment was a bit tongue in cheek) - it's very helpful to know what should be core and what can be thrown away. It's just in the real world whenever "throwaway" code starts getting traction and getting usage, the powers that be rarely are OK with "Great, now let's rebuild/refactor with production usage in mind" - it's more like "faster faster faster".