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Comment by farslan | Hacker News Reader

Next step is to provide automated fixes. I've have a side project that does it for Go source code: https://fixmie.com (have plans for other languages and protocols).

But due my Visa situation here in the US (H1B), I'll be never able to monetize it as it's illegal to have a side income. But I think this is just the start and there is an huge opportunity for new startups and projects.

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It is not impossible for you to earn second income on H1-B, it's just that the secondary source would need its on visa petition.

DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney. More importantly, I am not your attorney. The above is not legal advice. If you desire legal advice, consult a competent, licensed attorney in your area.

What's the probability that such an unsponsored visa would be approved, and within even a remotely relevant timeframe?

Zero. H1B, by definition requires a specialty and a sponsor who can fire you (I don't know the exact phrasing but this is what prevents someone with an H1B from starting their own company)

Before I proceed...are you sure and how sure are you? Would you like to entertain a bet against that nonsensical zero of yours, as if you actually know this.

I am always fascinated by deducive ignorami who pretend to have done the research, like yourself.

How is your project different than Getafix from Facebook?

https://engineering.fb.com/developer-tools/getafix-how-faceb...

My hot take is that if you can automatically detect meaningful bugs or author fixes, you need to level up your abstraction.

I think these things make the most sense for Java and Go where there tends to be lots of repetition and lower-order programming patterns.

Unlike say, Python, Lisp, or Rust.

I’ve never programmed in Java or Go in any serious context. What do some of those repeated patterns look like?

Error handling in Go.

Lots and lots of getters and setters in Java.

Loops

> Next step is to provide automated fixes.

That's a pretty deep rabbit hole. But considering that old "IDEs" with crappy "Intellisense", "Quickfix" or similar were widely sold, there's potential there.

It's not only about the code. For example it also could fixe your import paths if one of your libraries has a CVE and a new version was released. In the case of Fixmie, all the fixes are "suggestion" and GitHub nicely allows you to batch them all and submit with them in a single commit.

(Disclaimer: I'm working for GitHub, but on a different project)

Wouldn't that create worse programmers?

How so? There is so many things that we sometimes forgot. Even experienced developers will make mistakes.

If you relieve the programmer of thinking where his error is and give him the fix, the programmer will not bother to reason out what the solution is, he will simply expect it from you.

Do you really think that what we do and don't have to think about today is at some holy division of things that are best left automated (e.g. garbage collection, platform independence, serialization) and things we have to do by hand? Why is this particular point in time special?

It's a spectrum. Now isn't special.

I think if you provide an IDE that solves everything it will become like a calc, when people stoped making mental excersices in favor of typing the problem and get the insntant result of it.

> Is it really me who is coding if I can't get forward without searching the web and without IDE pleasantries? The programmer as an individual is an outdated idea.

https://twitter.com/andrestaltz/status/1195388056855031814

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