recently I gave AI a task to configure a software and the software didn’t have any docs of how it works only the source code. the agent went through all the files and generated a summary of how it works and why it’s not working for my particular scenario and suggested edits to my docker-compose.yml file. I couldn’t believe it since the bug was very hard to find and it used headless firefox to find why it wasn’t working.

made me realize do we still need documentation of how a software work when a AI can easily explain it?

  • cx40@piefed.caEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    In my opinion, the purpose of documentation isn’t just documenting. It’s a contract. It tells you what parts of the API are meant to be user-facing and that the devs will try to keep backwards compatible from one release to the next.

  • Pomal@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    13 days ago

    How often will an AI explain, with near 90% accuracy, an entire distributed system. Better yet, make it generate documentation for prime95 and see how quickly it melts.

    • bruh@thelemmy.clubOP
      0·
      13 days ago

      for a complex and large projects, it might be less accurate. but most project I use daily aren’t that complex (besides browser and linux kernel ).

      there were an even I went to and the speaker asked, “what things AI couldn’t make”. my answer was “entire cloud platform like AWS” he was speechless xD

    • YaBoyMax@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      As much as I can’t stand AI fanatics, I think some of the anti-AI rhetoric (especially on Lemmy) can be just as dogmatic. OP didn’t make any “extraordinary” claims. LLM agents have actually gotten remarkably good at many programming tasks, in particular tracking down bugs, and some of the things they’re able to work out are genuinely impressive. At the end of the day it’s another tool, but it can be a powerful one in the right context.

      That’s not to say anything about the environmental, social, and economic issues surrounding the tech and the industry. Obviously large companies are acting completely recklessly in all of those domains and I don’t intend to justify that aspect. That said, I think it’s disingenuous to frame OPs post as “making extraordinary claims” and it detracts from legitimate (and IMO mostly unimpeachable) arguments against AI.

          • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
            0·
            11 days ago

            “You’re not using the latest model”, “You’re holding it wrong”, etc…

            It’s the same shit, different day.

            I’m consistently told LLM generated code is the best thing since sliced bread, and people keep handing me “proof”, yet every time I open what they’ve handed me, I see a shit sandwich.

            And as soon as I point that out, the goalposts are moved yet again, ad infinitum.

            • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
              0·
              11 days ago

              I think the effect you’re seeing is that different people have different levels of “good enough”, and also they work in different domains where AI became good enough at different times. E.g. for one-off web page design it’s been good enough for a long time.

              I never said this for earlier models, because they did suck for things like Rust and SystemVerilog. Now they don’t.

              I’d share some things I’ve vibe coded that work basically perfectly but they’re linked to me real name, but you could have a look at the Mold linker which was recently vibe-ported to Rust.

              • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
                0·
                10 days ago

                E.g. for one-off web page design it’s been good enough for a long time.

                In just the last two months, I’ve been handed the following web projects:

                • A page filled with bootstrap style div-soup
                • A page filled with tailwind style class-soup
                • A slideshow webapp that has duplicated state and three different ways to change slides (navigate(), goTo(), and changeSlide()).
                • A slop-grenade of a chatbot interface for navigating a user through a flow chart, documentation of the flow chart, and documentation of the logic of the flow chart, all of which conflict with each other.

                I think the effect you’re seeing is that different people have different levels of “good enough”

                I think the effect that I’m seeing is twofold:

                1. People don’t realise that every line of code is a liability.
                2. People think that once they have something on the screen that looks finished, the project is finished. They haven’t thought about support or maintainability at all, and since they are completely inexperienced about such things: they aren’t qualified enough to when when a project is “even done”, let alone “good enough”.
                • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
                  0·
                  10 days ago

                  People think that once they have something on the screen that looks finished, the project is finished.

                  For .one-off web page that is true. You and I might not like that under the hood it’s a mess but we have to accept that if it works anyway and nobody is going to need to change it, that’s fine.

                  Also the latest models don’t even make a mess any more.

    • bruh@thelemmy.clubOP
      0·
      13 days ago

      I am sorry but I couldn’t resist AI. was avoiding it for very long time but it’s actually good. specially for tedious task which I have to do. now I can focus on the fun part :)