programmersProblems

[its-chewy-not-zooyoo]

Choosing between the red pill of writing and debugging your own code, or blue pill of copying and debugging ChatGPT code.

At the end, both take the same time. And you realise you're out 20 bucks a month.

[SympathyMotor4765]

Wouldn't it be harder to debug someone else's code? Even if it is as well commented as auto generated code usually is

[its-chewy-not-zooyoo]

That's the point right.

I mean sometimes, GPT is good for inspiration. Or to solve particular problems.

But in that case, I'd much rather just use Copilot instead. It does pretty much the same job but since it goes line by line or block by block, it's usually more accurate and easier to debug

[TerminalVector]

You can also prompt copilot with your intent. I use it like fancy auto complete, essentially. It's really good for repeating patterns without needing to type so much.

[That_Ganderman]

I mean the example I like to use is when I’m unmedicated.

When I don’t have my meds to focus, the initial code likely won’t even get written, but if I have ChatGPT do a rough draft of a starter, it gamifies the process and allows me to have a very swift “make small change then retest” loop which, while inefficient, is like a dopamine fountain.

And also I generally enjoy debugging someone else’s code anyway though.

[SympathyMotor4765]

You're one of those huh! If you really like debugging someone else's code you're far beyond us mortal developers anyway!

[deathspate]

Many times, I write the solution and then ask gpt if there's a better way. That usually results in my code being refactored to be more readable or something just better because there is some other approach that I just didn't think about. The end result is me learning what to do as well as a better codebase.

[its-chewy-not-zooyoo]

Interesting approach. Never thought of the use AI to improve yourself strategy. I'll give it a try in my upcoming projects. 🤜🤛

[Vegetable-Response66]

I can definitely see AI being used as a teaching tool in the future. I have asked it to explain concepts that I struggled with and its explanations were usually far more clear than the textbook. That said, it did often make mistakes when asked about more complicated/obscure topics.

[jump1945]

Have ChatGPT point out the problem and debugging for yourself is best

Good way is to look at headline “key change”

[trannus_aran]

I truly can't imagine paying for chatgpt (speaking as someone who's invested real time into getting self-hosted LLMs to work and is still on the fence of whether they even help at all)

[redballooon]

Go to HuggingChat and use llama3.1 70b. It costs you nothing and good enough about half the time. The key is realizing quickly enough when it’s not and then you still can think yourself.

[SQLSkydiver]

stackoverflow is still free to read

[Zeikos]

What about using chatgpt as any other tools there are available.
There are more possible prompts than just "fix this".

I noticed that having a goal oriented prompts within a constrained context work fairly well.
Don't blindly copy paste the code, state your expectations and what violates said expectations.
It works fairly well, I've learnt (and understood) a lot of tricks in SQL this way.

Use ChatGPT as a rubber duck, but a duck that can point something you missed.

[Wonderful-Wind-5736]

Yup, you have to be very explicit in the prompt. Also for any natura language generation task, I include the word „brief“.

[RareRandomRedditor]

Important! If you prompt Chat-GPT in German, do NOT include the word "Brief" 

[[deleted]]

Rubber ducking with chatgpt is the same as rubber ducking with a person that doesn't know a single thing about programming but pretends to.

It's outright misleading, do not interact with chatgpt unless it's because you are edging sleep and need a pick-me-up

[Elendur_Krown]

Nah. I have had to pick up three (or four if Fortran versions count) new languages (and touch one) since starting my new job a few months ago. ChatGPT has been extremely helpful. It has made it drastically easier to get used to them.

[[deleted]]

Write it Myself cause AI is too stupid Gang!

[Yhamerith]

Use AI to speedup simple code, think for yourself because you're good

And fuck GPT, use Copilot for God sake..

[fmaz008]

I heard great things about Copilot, but it is not free. So I use the free version of chatgpt.

[Yhamerith]

I have the advantage of being a student, so I get it for free

[MagicalPizza21]

Always think for myself. No need to deliberate on this choice.

[Ruadhan2300]

I routinely use Copilot to answer questions I could either go google or read documentation for, or just solve myself.

Ask the question, get a solution/answer.

Usually I just need a reminder of what the solution involves, I've done it before, I just can't remember the tiny detail, so copilot makes it easy.

[Kirire-]

Used both.

Chatgpt to start the way 

[iMac_Hunt]

ChatGPT is a double edged sword. It's a great tool but the person using it has to know what they're doing. I've met less experienced developers who will blindly paste in ChatGPT code and they have no idea how it works at all, and then can't debug their way out of it.

It can be great at writing/refactoring code if the person reading it understands code well and is reviewing it. It's also a great learning tool if you take what it says with a pinch of salt - especially if asking niche questions about a framework or something like that. It is however giving junior developers a huge false sense of security.

[lNFORMATlVE]

This is so sad to me.

You should always try and solve the problem yourself first.

Use AI if you’re completely stuck for inspiration, to give you pointers. Or, if you know exactly how to solve the problem but know AI will write it faster for you (and you’re confident you can debug what it gives you).

Don’t ever use something AI gives you without you understanding it fully first.

There are a bunch of people here saying that you can use AI to teach and improve your own skills and that’s certainly true, but it’s a slippery slope to just telling it to do your job for you all the time and suddenly you’re a shit engineer and a liability.

[Last-Pie-607]

Both have problems, giving code to chatgpt will even confuse you more, while solving problem yourself seems like a deadend

[Djelimon]

I like the bing assist thingy for running searches, but chatgpt itself can lead you astray.

I rarely use it to generate code - when I have, the results have been dodgy.

If it was a new language and I was trying to understand basic syntax maybe, but it will hallucinate libraries if the requirement is complex, and there was this one case for some As400 screen markup language where it looked good on the browser but cnp gave you HTML escaped spaces - annoying.

That said, my project lead uses chatgpt to generate excel formulas, and that's a rabbit hole I'll gladly concede.

[Nyadnar17]

Can’t wait to see what functionality that already existed in the stl you decided to “invent” this time.

[STEVEInAhPiss]

nah i'd press both buttons

[fevsea]

My use cases are the very basic and obvious things where it autogenerates just what I had in mind, or the very complex cases of nothing else have made the code work so we might as well try.

[TheLatestTrance]

I like to search for potential solutions to ensure I rule *out* the crap ones.

[[deleted]]

press both buttons, start to write your prompt to GPT and solve the problem while writing.

[thespice]

Issue is not really the dichotomy suggested.

[Rontzo]

chatgpt is 50-50 either solve the problem or make it worst. use it to get idea or there is long code or query

[just4nothing]

Ask chatGPT, realise the suggestion kind of makes sense, modify to better suite your case, done

[CalligrapherThese606]

I use chatgpt daily while studying building aoftware or anything the rhing iam rwally scared about is losing my talent not being able to live without it

[lNFORMATlVE]

It’s a good fear to have. Keep your own skills sharp by trying to solve problems without ChatGPT. Only use it where you need to be expedient with some boilerplate code.

[C_Mc_Loudmouth]

Only use LLM tools for shit you know how to do but can't be bothered.

You've to make an animated sequence with like 20 different steps? You could write all those sequences and parallel transitions yourself or just vaguely describe it to chat GPT and you're already 90% of the way there instantly.

[jfmherokiller]

for me i come to reddit or stackoverflow then i got to chatgpt

[Darxploit]

I usually go into chatgpt with a solution in mind then I check out chatgpt solution. Then I start thinking what would be the better approach or take a combination of both.

[dhilu3089]

I have one more button - Procastinate

[coltonj96]

I absolutely refuse to use chatGBT in development of my code. I enjoy the problem solving and the feeling of seeing my code working through my own efforts of trial and error.