Felicitas Pojtinger 🌅Feb 26
You know, I don't actually agree that using an LLM to edit code should be banned by a project. Sure, running it on autopilot, yes. But as an editor? No. Being able to say search for a symbol without knowing it's name exactly or start a big semantic search and replace or copying and filling out a template with my own values with an LLM instead of wasting my limited time on earth with it is great.
Show threadColin B.🇨🇦

@pojntfx as much as I hate it, using LLMs as a smart search/diagnostics tool is a valid and useful case.

"Why isn't this code giving me the results I expect?" along with a sanitized snippet has saved me hours of manual debugging, and I've learned more things quicker as a result.

Feb 26 at 10:21pmWeb
Show threadFelicitas Pojtinger 🌅Feb 26
@swordgeek Yeah I feel the same way. I've had this happen sometimes in places were docs weren't great as well. Being able to point an LLM at source code and ask it a question about why something I've changed in a config file doesn't work the way I expect (I had this happen with Garage, the S3-compatible store, lately, and also with CRIU) is really, really valuable.
Show threadFelicitas Pojtinger 🌅Feb 26
@swordgeek It doesn't replace actually engaging with the project to build your own mental model of how things work ofc but if used in the right context it can really lead to improvements in lots of ways I didn't expect
Show threadColin B.🇨🇦Feb 26
@pojntfx one example: I have a $PATH sanitization command that I've used forever. We wanted to use it for templated images, and I asked an LLM if it was a good idea. It replied with an improvement, a way of capturing a corner case I'd missed, and an admonition that the path should ve built from scratch correctly, not fixed after a potential race condition window. (We actually already did that - this was belt-and-suspenders safety.)