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Comment by zoogeny | Hacker News Reader

Well, we're in a loop then because my response was "you don't care about maintainable assembly".

I want maintainable systems you want maintainable code. We can just accept that difference. I believe maintainable systems can be achieved without focusing on code that humans find maintainable. In the future, I believe we will build systems on top of code primarily written by LLMs and the rubric of what constitutes good code will change accordingly.

edit: I would also add that your position is exactly the position of assembly programmers when C came around. They lamented the assembly the C compiler generated. "I want assembly I can read, understand and maintain" they demanded. They didn't get it.

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We're stuck in a loop because you're flip flopping between two positions.

You started off by comparing LLM output to compiler output, which I pointed out is a false equivalence because LLMs aren't as deterministic as compilers.

Then you switched to comparing LLMs to humans, which I'm fine with, but then LLMs must be expected to produce maintainable code just like humans.

Now you're going back to the original premise that LLM output is comparable to compiler output, thus completing the loop.

There are more elements to a compiler than determinism. That is, determinism isn't their sole defining property. I can compare other properties of compilers to LLMs. No "flip flop" there IMO, but your judgment may vary.

Perhaps it is impossible for you to imagine that LLMs can share some properties with compilers and other properties with humans? And that this specific blend of properties makes them unique? And that uniqueness means we have to take a nuanced approach to understanding their impact on designing and building systems?

So lets lay it out. LLMs are like compilers in that they take high level instructions (in the form of English) and translate it into programming languages. Maybe "transpiler" would be a word you prefer? LLMs are like humans in that this translation of high level instructions to programming languages is non-deterministic and so it requires system level controls to handle this imprecision.

I do not detect any conflict in these two ideas but perhaps you see things differently.

> There are more elements to a compiler than determinism.

Yes, but determinism is the factor that allows me to treat compilers as a black box without verifying their output. LLMs do not share this specific property, which is why I have to verify their output, and easily verifiable software is what I call "maintainable".

An interesting question you might want to ask yourself, related to this idea: what would you do if your compiler wasn't deterministic?

Would you go back to writing assembly? Would you diligently work to make the compiler "more" deterministic. Would you engineer your systems around potential failures?

How do industries like the medical or aviation deal with imperfect humans? Are there lessons we can learn from those domains that may apply to writing code with non-deterministic LLMs?

I also just want to point out an irony here. I'm arguing in favor of languages like Go, Rust and Zig over the more traditional dynamic scripting languages like Python, PHP, Ruby and JavaScript. I almost can't believe I'm fighting the "unmaintainable" angle here. Do people really think a web server written in Go or Rust is unmaintainable? I'm defending my position as if they are, but come on. This is all a bit ridiculous.

> How do industries like the medical or aviation deal with imperfect humans?

We have a system in science for verifying shoddy human output, it's called peer review. And it's easier for your peers to review your code when it's maintainable. We're back in the loop.

That is one system. Are there zero others?

Funny thing about this thread and black and white thinking. I feel a different kind of loop.

> Do people really think a web server written in Go or Rust is unmaintainable?

Things are not black and white. It will be less maintainable relatively speaking, proper tool for the job and all that. That’s why you will be left in the dust.

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