My experience so far is … ChatGPT is great if treated like I’ve got access to 
an intern to help with grunt work.

The quality is about the same, it’s a lot faster than an intern would take, and 
it doesn’t complain if you tell it to try a different approach.

If you just hit the ‘regenerate’ button, it will usually produce different code 
using a different approach.

It takes incremental suggestions, so you can say, “take the code from the inner 
loop and put it into a separate function” and it does it.

I needed a bit of php code to put on my web host for something specific. I 
haven’t written any php code for a long time, so I told it what I wanted and it 
spat out some code. I nudged it in a few different directions to get closer to 
what I needed, then I tweaked it myself, and in less than an hour I had working 
code. 

It was faster than searching the internet for code samples, writing it from 
scratch and having to look up functions and stuff from the latest version of 
the language, and it didn’t require me to post requests here or anywhere for 
help.

I tried getting help with another problem that needed 200-250 lines of code, 
and it was horrid.

One thing it’s excellent for is having it write code to import and/or export 
data to/from another place. That’s something that’s very regular code, but it’s 
complicated enough that you can’t simply write a regex expression in vi to do 
it. The result needs to be informed by the fields, their types, and quirks on 
either and of the assignments.

Like: Here’s an object in Python … now create the same object in php … write 
import and export routines in php to copy the data from the python object to 
the php object.

You could write a macro for that in something and run it to translate any 
number of objects from one platform to another. THe code is really mechanical 
and there’s not much it can screw up.

It can be a HUGE time-saver for the right kinds of things. Just think of it 
like an intern — you’d never give an intern a huge prolblem, right? You’d break 
it down into small chunks, or even ask the internt to try doing that first.

It’s all in how you manage it as a resource.

-David Schwartz




> On Jun 6, 2023, at 2:03 AM, trent shipley via PLUG-discuss 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Pointy haired manager to programmer:  We are thinking of replacing 
> programming with AI.
> 
> Programmer:  Don't you mean you plan to replace programmers with AI.
> 
> PHM: No, replace programming itself.
> 
> P:  How?  Why?
> 
> PHM:  Well, the Big, Poorly Understood AI produces really good results 
> without actually writing code.
> 
> P: Go on...
> 
> PHM:  Plus it's cheap and really, really prolific and efficient.
> 
> P: Sure, but its quality is awful!! 
> 
> PHM: So is the quality of your software, all software, really.
> 
> P. Yeah, but the AI's quality is MUCH worse!
> 
> PHM:  Yes, but the AI is so affordable, efficient, and prolific, that the 
> wrongful death lawsuits will be just a cost of doing business, and we'll 
> still come out ahead according to the actuaries.
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list: [email protected]
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list: [email protected]
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Reply via email to