recently I gave AI a task to configure a software and the software didn’t have any docs of how it works only the source code. the agent went through all the files and generated a summary of how it works and why it’s not working for my particular scenario and suggested edits to my docker-compose.yml file. I couldn’t believe it since the bug was very hard to find and it used headless firefox to find why it wasn’t working.

made me realize do we still need documentation of how a software work when a AI can easily explain it?

  • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
    1·
    4 days ago

    People think that once they have something on the screen that looks finished, the project is finished.

    For .one-off web page that is true. You and I might not like that under the hood it’s a mess but we have to accept that if it works anyway and nobody is going to need to change it, that’s fine.

    Also the latest models don’t even make a mess any more.

    • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
      1·
      4 days ago

      For .one-off web page that is true

      There’s not really any such thing as a one off web page.

      It’s eventually going to need to be updated or reused for something else.

      The only exceptions being if your company goes under, force majure, or if you have something with the same requirements but choose to make the same thing again from scratch for no real reason , which is just being inefficient and unreasonable.

      Also the latest models don’t even make a mess any more.

      Yeah… I’m calling bullshit on that, all four projects I was handed was made by the latest models and it will continue being an issue for the foreseeable future. (see a previous comment of mine for reasoning: https://programming.dev/post/57569685/26398217)

      • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
        11·
        4 days ago

        There’s not really any such thing as a one off web page.

        Of course there is. What an absurd thing to say. A very obvious example is event websites, e.g. for weddings.

        I’m calling bullshit on that

        Maybe it depends on the language but I’ve recently vibe coded two tools in Rust and I’ve skimmed the code and it’s perfectly good Rust. I would accept it in a PR - even if I was being as picky as I’d really like to be in reviews. I don’t think that would have been the case 3 months ago though.

        • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
          1·
          10 hours ago

          There’s not really any such thing as a one off web page.

          Of course there is. What an absurd thing to say. A very obvious example is event websites, e.g. for weddings.

          Why would you not reuse event pages for the next event?

          Maybe it depends on the language but I’ve recently vibe coded two tools in Rust and I’ve skimmed the code and it’s perfectly good Rust. I would accept it in a PR - even if I was being as picky as I’d really like to be in reviews. I don’t think that would have been the case 3 months ago though.

          I’d expect that the code would be almost exactly the same as other code that already exists, in which case, why not use that code?

          • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
            1·
            3 hours ago

            Why would you not reuse event pages for the next event?

            How many times are you getting married? 😄

            I’d expect that the code would be almost exactly the same as other code that already exists, in which case, why not use that code?

            Uhm, because it’s not the same? Why would I vibe code an app that’s almost exactly the same as an existing one?