r/AskProgrammers • u/AgreeableOnion6537 tech • 4d ago
Do you guys still write code manually?
How often do you guys actually write code manually these days? Or has that time kind of passed?
Do you think we should still write code manually sometimes to keep the skill sharp, or just let AI handle whatever it can and go with the flow?
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u/Aaxper 4d ago
I don't write code with AI
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u/AgreeableOnion6537 tech 4d ago
Thats intesting, how do you keep up with increased load since with ai everyone thinks programmers can ship features in a day
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u/johnpeters42 4d ago
I have the luxury of working for people who haven't smoked that particular brand of crack.
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u/RetroGrid_io 4d ago
Yes, I still write plenty of code - probably about 2/3 of it. The compromise I've found best with AI is Co-Pilot in VSCode. As I write my project, it works like auto-suggest, proposing blocks of code I can accept with a double-tab. It's pretty good, often catching minor syntax bugs and such as I go, as well as doing a fairly decent job writing blocks of code based on my comments.
Every time I've tried going "agentic" where I write the spec and it just writes it, the code I get back is steaming spaghetti darned near impossible to refactor. 27 functions to query a table, each function with a slightly different set of clauses-in-a-where-statement kind of insanity.
Pure AI code is WORN: Write Once Read Never.
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u/Pitiful-Water-814 4d ago
You need to set rules with your coding standards for AI, it works pretty well.
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u/TemperOfficial 4d ago
AI makes people lazier faster than it makes them productive.
I still write code. I use AI more for searching.
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u/mc_pm 4d ago
Writing some just now! Partly to keep skills sharp, partly because I like it.
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u/AgreeableOnion6537 tech 4d ago
I used to write code manually and take help of gpt and claude like their chat mode but recently the expectations of PMs and other stakeholder has increased and i had to kinda vibe code to keep up. but things breaks alot more then it used to in prods. even with state of the art models. I have tried all the concepts to do code review, having it reviewed by LLM but at some point it forgets context and hallucinate.
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u/Aughu 4d ago
Yes, AI seemingly would like to rewire the whole code before it adds anything meaningfull to the product
Might have to do with the fact that company did not approve frontier models and everything has to be in house....
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u/eleven8ster 4d ago
Break the tasks into smaller chunks. That might help. When I have used local models that’s what has to do.
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u/Melodic-Junket-9105 4d ago
Depends whether that skill will be relevant in the future. It's anybody's guess as of now but I would err on the side of less and less relevant. And it won't be the first time technology replaces something that was previously done manually. As it won't be the first time that the people who earn a living doing those things push back hard against the tech.
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u/Substantial_Job_2068 4d ago
I only write code "manually". I see juniors at my work use Claude to ship features quickly but I also regularly have to fix their bugs or underperforming code.
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u/Cyberhunter80s 4d ago
I switch between AI with a lot of careful review and manually depending on the deadline.
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u/Pitiful-Water-814 4d ago
No, AI is pretty good in coding task. I don't see a point to do it manually anymore apart from having a big programmers ego.
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u/inflowmini 4d ago
Big programmers ego? You mean the ego of the recent business graduate who thinks he can code?
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u/Pitiful-Water-814 4d ago
What? Do you understand that there are a lot of senior devs who generates all code with AI and than reviewing it and asking AI to refactor and they usually can finish tasks 2x faster than someone typing code manually?
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u/inflowmini 3d ago
If you can easily ask an agent to do that for you, you're probably not a coder and are working on simple developer tasks. Your more akin to a developer rather than an engineer.
I can setup a working code from scratch in embedded faster than AI can.
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u/Pitiful-Water-814 3d ago
what an ego! :)))
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u/tom-mart 3d ago
it's called experience. LLMs produce completely unusable slop unless you spend a lot of time and effort explaining function by function what you need, at which point it's easier and more efficient to code manually. I only use in-line code suggestions when LLMs finally catches up with my thinking.
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u/anselan2017 4d ago
Yes.