@CptSuperlative I think you're on to something significant here!
After almost 20 years of programming, I mostly write code that works as intended the first time, but that's because I write it in small increments.
Even without test-driven development, an essential part of software development is continuously exercising every line of code to ensure it works as intended. Programming and software design are "whitebox problems"¹: we know the design and can make sure to test all paths in it.
@CptSuperlative Conversely, using LLMs to generate code, turns programming and softwsre design into a blackbox problem, which means we no longer know and exercise all the paths, because we move too fast.
This is especially bad in agentic development, where it is a blackbox approach at a high level of abstraction. There are many layers of abstraction which we don't exercise properly.
Notes:
¹ Whitebox testing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-box_testing
@CptSuperlative I think there's a strong argument somewhere here, about why LLM generation of code will result in lower quality, with uncertainties in security, data security, etc… but it needs a bit more fleshing out on the usage side: how LLMs affect the psychology of developers to stop them from evaluating all the code they write.
I think it's implied by the fact that most developers don't even properly read all the code they generate…?
Niels Abildgaard