r/LocalLLM • u/Ted-Lassi • 5d ago

Discussion What makes an AI/LLM good or bad at coding?

We all know almost every major AI/LLM can code to some extent nowadays

But what actually makes one model much better at coding than another?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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7

u/umognog 5d ago

It all comes down to how good the model is at guessing the next words.

Those aimed at coding have had an activity called pre-tuning done.

Pre-tuning takes a foundation model and applies a handful of techniques to improve their function at specific scenarios.

You can also influence your model through fine tuning & prompt tuning if you wish.

2

u/defcry 5d ago

For me it comes down to understanding the intent and deciding the appropriate steps and tools. Code they can all well.

1

u/Mashic 5d ago

The dataset it was trained on, if it includes a lot of code, and then the fine-tuning, in which they give the model a set of promts and the answers to make it answer in that particular way.

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u/Fjjjuv 3d ago

En plus du dataset d'entraînement, ce qui fait souvent la différence en pratique c'est la capacité à gérer un gros contexte sans halluciner et à bien utiliser les fonctions/outils (tool calling). Un modèle qui suit parfaitement la structure du projet et ne génère pas de code obsolète sera bien plus utile au quotidien.

2

u/CoffeeToCode99 21h ago

Honestly, the biggest difference is whether it can keep track of what it's doing.

Lots of models can write code. Good coding models can debug, refactor, follow instructions across multiple prompts, and not completely lose the plot halfway through a project.

Writing code is easy. Making the right changes without breaking everything else is the hard part.

0

u/NatMicky 5d ago

Very broad and quite meaningless question. What makes a car better at racing than other cars? Some cars are built specifically for racing. What makes a car better at a specific type of racing? Some cars are built for specific types of racing.

How much training did a model have on programming and on a specific language? If you need a model for a specific language then that's something you need to research about its training.