alt Hacker NewsKotlin creator's new language: talk to LLMs in specs, not English
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Then of course we are going to ask LLMs to generate specifications in this new language
This is basically what I talked about maybe a year ago. Glad to see someone is taking it on.
Exactly as necessary as Kotlin itself.
Good code is the specification.
I would just like to point out the fun fact that instead of the brave new MD speak, there is still a `codespeak.json` to configure the build system itself...
...which seems to suggest that the authors themselves don't dogfood their own software. Please tell me that Codespeak was written entirely with Codespeak!
Instead of that json, which is so last year, why not use an agent to create an MD file to setup another agent, that will compile another MD file and feed it to the third agent, that... It is turtles, I mean agents, all the way down!
I think stuff like Langflow and n8n are more likely to be adopted, alongside with some more formal specifications.
We created programming languages to direct programs. Then created LLM's to use English to direct programs. Now we've create programming languages to direct LLM's. What is old is new again!
The tweet I saw a few weeks ago about LLMs enabling building stupid ideas that would have never been built otherwise particularly resonates with this one.
Another great way to shrink your codebase 10x? Rewrite it in APL. If less code means less information, what are we gonna do when missing information was important?
Alas, I thought I invented this.
As someone who hates writing (and thus coding) this might be a good tool, but how’s is it different from doing the same in claude? And I only see python, what about other languages, are they also production grade?
The intent of the idea is there, and I agree that there should be more precise syntax instead of colloquial English. However, it's difficult to take CodeSpeak seriously as it looks AI generated and misses key background knowledge.
I'm hoping for a framework that expands upon Behavior Driven Development (BDD) or a similar project-management concept. Here's a promising example that is ripe for an Agentic AI implementation, https://behave.readthedocs.io/en/stable/philosophy/#the-gher...
Buddy invented RobotFramework, great job.
I for one can't wait to be a confident CodeSpeak programmer /sarc
Does this make it a 6th generation language?
Sounds like crap.
So, just a markdown file?
THe HN title seems very misleading to me. How is this, in any sense of the word, "formal?" I don't see that particular word used to describe this tool on the web page itself.
The site does describe it as a "programming language," which feels like a novel use of the term to me. The borders around a term like "programming language" are inherently fuzzy, but something like "code generation tool" better describes CodeSpeak IMHO.
This is pretty lame. I WANT to write code, something that has a formal definition and express my ideas in THAT, not some adhoc pseudo english an LLM then puts the cowboy hat on and does what the hotness of the week is.
Programming is in the end math, the model is defined and, when done correctly follows common laws.
I cannot read light on black. I don't know, maybe it's a condition, or simply just part of getting old. But my eyes physically hurt, and when I look up from reading a light-on-black screen, even when I looked at only for a short moment, my eyes need seconds to adjust again.
I know dark mode is really popular with the youngens but I regularly have to reach for reader mode for dark web pages, or else I simply cannot stand reading the contents.
Unfortunately, this site does not have an obvious way of reading it black-on-white, short of looking at the HTML source (CTRL+U), which - in fact - I sometimes do.
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We built LLMs so that you can express your ideas in English and no longer need to code.
Also, English is really too verbose and imprecise for coding, so we developed a programming language you can use instead.
Now, this gives me a business idea: are you tired of using CodeSpeak? Just explain your idea to our product in English and we'll generate CodeSpeak for you.
I'll stick to Polish
The next step is to use AI to edit the spec... /s
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Yes I'm also one of those LLM skeptics but actually this looks interesting.