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by nicopappl 1286 days ago
I found that understanding compilers was precious at several occasions, especially for cross compilation and embedded programming. Even for Java, for uni assignments, I was completely flabbergasted and at a lost when my IDE stopped working with cryptic messages. Understanding the process of creating object files, what javac does, what goes into a jar helps. As much as understanding what a compiler does, its relationship wtih linkers, how libraries are "added" to an executable (dynamically or statically)

Beside, with ChatGPT in its current state, it's still absolutely impossible to get it to produce any useful code without knowing how code works. There is an advantage to the precise specification of a formal language. At least for the next decade, I think there will be human proof-reading AI output before generated code is ran, with catastrophic consequences when that doesn't happen.

What I've difficulties getting over right now is every time I write something (text or code) I ask myself "Could ChatGPT have written it better?"