alt Hacker NewsOne might argue that it’s not too too different from higher level abstractions when using libraries. You get things done faster, write less code, library handles some internal state/memory management for you.
Would one be uneasy about calling a library to do stuff than manually messing around with pointers and malloc()? For some, yes. For others, it’s a bit freeing as you can do more high-level architecture without getting mired and context switched from low level nuances.
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A library is deterministic.
LLMs are not.
That we let a generation of software developers rot their brains on js frameworks is finally coming back to bite us.
We can build infinite towers of abstraction on top of computers because they always give the same results.
LLMs by comparison will always give different results. I've seen it first hand when a $50,000 LLM generated (but human guided) code base just stops working an no one has any idea why or how to fix it.
Hope your business didn't depend on that.
I would argue it couldn't be more different. I can dive into the source code of any library, inspect it. I can assess how reliable a library is and how popular. Bugs aside, libraries are deterministic. I don't see why this parallel keeps getting made over and over again.
> Would one be uneasy about calling a library to do stuff than manually messing around with pointers and malloc()?
The irony is that the neverending stream of vulnerabilities in 3rd-party dependencies (and lately supply-chain attacks) increasingly show that we should be uneasy.
We could never quite answer the question about who is responsible for 3rd-party code that's deployed inside an application: Not the 3rd-party developer, because they have no access to the application. But not the application developer either, because not having to review the library code is the whole point.
I hate this comparison because you're comparing a well defined deterministic interface with LLM output, which is the exact opposite.
A library doesn't randomly drop out of existence cause of "high load" or whatever and limit you to a some number of function calls per day. With local models there's no issue, but this API shit is cancer personified, when you combine all the frontend bugs with the flaky backend, rate limits, and random bans it's almost a literal lootbox where you might get a reply back or you might get told to fuck off.
Qwen has become a useful fallback but it's still not quite enough.
I see this comparison made constantly and for me it misses the mark.
When you use abstractions you are still deterministically creating something you understand in depth with individual pieces you understand.
When you vibe something you understand only the prompt that started it and whether or not it spits out what you were expecting.
Hence feeling lost when you suddenly lose access to frontier models and take a look at your code for the first time.
I’m not saying that’s necessarily always bad, just that the abstraction argument is wrong.