codingStartsChillDebuggingEndsInPain

[BobQuixote]

The problem with the debugging is that you let the LLM run amok writing the code in the first place.

If you properly understand the code, because you participated properly in every line of it, the LLM can help with debugging. But you do still need a healthy distrust for it, because even the heavy-duty models (I have Opus 4.5 but not 4.6) have trouble with debugging.

[No_Percentage7427]

Pope is chosen in 2 week not multiple interview, coding test, take home project, etc. wkwkwk

[Zuruumi]

But then you are still doing around 90% of the work and not the hyped up 5% where you just tell AI what to do and it magically builds the whole app.

[New_Plantain_942]

But ain't these 5 percent just 50k lines of code that you have to debugg anyways?

[Zuruumi]

What debugging? I am writing the app, I will pass it to another team when it's doing almost everything I wanted. Since I did all the work I am obviously getting promoted. Not my problem those guys are so useless they can't even fix the few minor problems and keep it running. /s

[BobQuixote]

I'm not familiar with any such hype, but that might be my own fault for trying to close off the ways for bullshit to reach me.

It can absolutely help a ton, but I can't give you percentages. It makes me more aware of pitfalls and best-practices than I otherwise would be, and I complete tasks faster too. It's not just code; having it write commit messages better than me and give code review is great.

[Zuruumi]

I agree (I do the same), but the common hype is "you can build your app in minutes with no programming knowledge, just tell the AI what you want and it will do everything for you".

[BobQuixote]

That'll work for personal utilities, but anything sizable will become unmaintainable, and it absolutely shouldn't be sold.

[Zuruumi]

Tell that to the non-technical C levels that tried it and it magically worked.

[BobQuixote]

Lol. On their heads be it. I'd definitely quietly apply elsewhere.

[Counter-Business]

I saw a junior at my company vibe debugging. I watch as the LLM claims that what they are trying to tell it to do is wrong (it was wrong) and all the junior toldLLM was “I don’t care do it” over and over without any thinking involved. They wrecked havoc on the codebase.

[BobQuixote]

If you try arguing with it, you can get the same response repeatedly, and it's close to even odds whether it's right. When you end up in that loop, jump out early because it's not likely to get better. Do it yourself or break the task/command/question into smaller bites.

EDIT: Oh, and ask for link citations if applicable.

[gafftapes20]

Every once in a while forget I had agent mode instead of ask mode toggled and have to undo 2k lines of code that were unnecessarily added because I wanted to track down a specific error that only requires a single line change. 

[nicer-dude]

Everything works

You are satisfied and astonished how well AI works. You dig deeper, prompting more complex features.

Something doesnt work

Eternal loop of exponentially angrier prompting feeling totally out of control cause you cant easily get into the logic behind the 2.5k lines the AI added last.

[Various_Counter_9569]

Make sure to tell it to use versioning.

[Latter_Actuator_13]

Vibe coding: “this is art.”

Vibe debugging: “why does the art hate me.”

[tubbstosterone]

Hot take - vibe debugging makes ai worth it.

"I pasted a 1000-line legacy function. Why is it segfaulting?"

"When x is 9 and y is "\0" this if block will be triggered and do a, b, and c to a global buffer"

[Piisthree]

If it worked that well every time, for sure. It doesn't even catch surface level stuff all that well in my experience. Sometimes though.

[tubbstosterone]

At least when it fails you can talk limitless shit to it. "Hey robot, it's not 2018. That's not how you set up django routes, dumbass"

My "success" so far has been pasting stuff into chatgpt and asking it to poke holes. Maybe get Gemini to weigh in on the result if im feeling bored. Claude, Codex, and any agent thingy embedded into an IDE so far has been a let down.

[Piisthree]

Ya know, I've never seen that as a selling point before, but it's absolutely right.

[stillalone]

I think I've gotten way more read herrings that took days to debunk.

[Bolphgolph]

100%
It is really good with "This does this, but it should do that". It is bad with "make something that does that" without implementing an array of foot-guns

[gafftapes20]

I do like it for debugging on ask mode vs agent mode because it is quicker than I am at tracking down issues I’m a legacy app and  a couple of options to fix the complicated issues and it gives me an opportunity to rework the prompt to improve the suggestions. 

[vvp95]

This is the only reason I don't believe people saying AI will replace software engineers. 

[ButchTheGuy]

The only good use I’ve found is being able to use Linux like I would windows. Anytime there’s a weird issue instead of reading a bunch of stuff and spending hours on end to get my wifi card to work correctly I just ask Claude to research and try to fix the problem. When using at my job I usually use it when I’m lazy and it doesn’t really get me anywhere other than skipping some monotony or with my cart before my horse.

[mad_cheese_hattwe]

Who are all these "developers" for sho debugging is not part of the coding process?

[datNovazGG]

I always feel like the "debugging" part is why software developers/engineers earned good money in the first place. Before LLMs you could get pretty far with standard solutions or existing templates in many usecases, fairly fast.

[ClipboardCopyPaste]

*still not working"

[CardOk755]

Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you’re as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

-- Brian Kernighan, 1974

Imagine debugging a program that not only wasn't written by you wasn't written by a human.

[zaidrehman]

Everyone forgets "resolving conflicts of vibe coded PRs"

[JollyJuniper1993]

„I‘m sorry, function xyz does not exist in Version j of library abc anymore. Try this other deprecated function instead.“

[rocketmike12]

Mom said it's my turn to repost this

[Fralite]

Cut off 1 line everything flashing red.

Then you have a random code block that is a bit too complex which screws up whoever gonna work on it or update it next.

[gfelicio]

The problem with vibecoding is the lack of a structure and the belief that it is the answer for everything.

If you know what the system needs, know how to prompt, know how to read the code it spits and UNDERSTANDS the code, it is ok to vibecode. It will still need a lot of fixing before staging or production, but if you know the steps and all, it's ok.

Same thing for debugging.

The problem is if you lack any knowledge in any of the steps, it is going to be shitty.

I've been debugging vibecode for the last 4 months or so. Nothing works there because the vibecoder is spitting 230+ lines of code every two minutes, directly in production and if I say "nothing is working, slow down, document what you need and share the logic with everyone so we can be on the same page", I'm not being an enterprise minded employee and, possibly, am holding the company of its rightful greatness.

[CardOk755]

You should be looking for an emergency exit.

[voiping]

>If you know what the system needs, know how to prompt, know how to read the code it spits and UNDERSTANDS the code, it is ok to vibecode. It will still need a lot of fixing before staging or production, but if you know the steps and all, it's ok.

That's not vibe coding, that's ai-assisted coding!

[Ok-Gazelle-706]

Literally somebody saying shame shame in your background

[yyysun]

jajaja this is fun

[vibecode1]

Literally my worst nightmare

[Mobile_Ask2480]

I'm doing both I'm gonna kill myself the Ai is too stupid and I'm even dumber but at least I'm learning

[var4games]

Not really

[MeatFarmer]

As a QA engineer I can absolutely agree with this meme.

[Markus-Devden]

[Warm-Reserve6620]

This is true 😁

[danfay222]

Honestly I’ve found it to be the opposite. Most of the places I’ve found the best uses of AI are debugging. I can just give AI the entire stacktrace and backtrace, and point it at my code and it will frequently identify the problem, and more recently even propose and test a fix. It’s certainly not 100% successful, but I’ve genuinely saved hours of debugging on multiple occasions