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by xmprt 155 days ago
You're either overestimating the capabilities of current AI models or underestimating the complexity of building a web browser. There are tons of tiny edge cases and standards to comply with where implementing one standard will break 3 others if not done carefully. AI can't do that right now.
4 comments
tocsa 145 days ago
Even though several people seconded the complexity of a browser, I must add one more take and bring up one of my all time favorite blog posts, back from 2000 (I am old), when browsers were already complex, Joel Spolsky's Joel On Software episode "Things You Should Never Do, Part I" https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... His first example was Netscape browser v6.0, and why there wasn't a v5.0 after v4.0, why it took three years: "They did it by making the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make: They decided to rewrite the code from scratch." I think this blog post is very relevant here.
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torginus 155 days ago
Even if AI will not achieve the ability to perform at this level on its own, it clearly is going to be an enormous force multiplier, allowing highly skilled devs to tackle huge projects more or less on their own.
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thesz 154 days ago
Skilled devs compress, not generate (expand).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kUQWuK1L4w

The "discoverer" of APL tried to express as many problems as he could with his notation. First he found that notation expands and after some more expansion he found that it began shrinking.

The same goes to Forth, which provides means for a Sequitur-compressed [1] representation of a program.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequitur_algorithm

Myself, I always strive to delete some code or replace some code with shorter version. First, to better understand it, second, to return back and read less.

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rvz 155 days ago
It's most likely both.

> There are tons of tiny edge cases and standards to comply with where implementing one standard will break 3 others if not done carefully. AI can't do that right now.

Firstly the CI is completely broken on every commit, all tests have failed and its and looking closely at the code, it is exactly what you expect for unmaintainable slop.

Having more lines of code is not a good measure of robust software, especially if it does not work.

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rlt 155 days ago
Not only edge cases and standards, but also tons of performance optimizations.
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