[cmiles74]

Are they? I remember when heavyweight IDEs where all the rage, there was a similar sentiment that if you weren't using one of them then you would eventually be so much slower that you'd be out of a job. It only took maybe five years until people started asking themselves if the dependency on a big IDE (and cost) was worth it. I don't think anyone would look at someone who prefers a stripped down text editor today and think they are backward or doing it wrong.

We have yet to see hard numbers on time saved by those who use LLM tooling extensively. It could be it doesn't turn out as compelling as we might expect.

Just sayin', I never forced software developers to use NetBeans or Intellij IDEA. I'm certainly not changing my tune and forcing them to use LLM tooling either.

[classified]

Maybe it depends. If what you want to build is one-shot crap anyway, then micromanaging LLMs to make them vomit what you need for that is "productive". I wouldn't know, because I prefer real work over the make-believe and leave the AI coding acolytes to be left behind and die when their ingenious plans explode in their faces.

[znpy]

Keep in mind, we don't do a lot of things that big IDES used to do.

Dumb example: graphical user interfaces. Heavyweight IDEs used to have a GUI designer (Netbeans had a very nice one).

GUI development is niche nowadays.

Also we have much better cross-editor tooling, just think of language servers (https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/) and build servers (https://build-server-protocol.github.io/). Back in the day each IDE had their own.

Vim and Emacs can do a lot of what IDEs used to offer thanks to language servers and build servers. Before those (lang/build servers) they were largely useless for large scale development (believe me, i tried).

[raxxorraxor]

It can put out code much faster than any software dev. And if you are careful with your prompts and demands, it is good quality code as well.

Especially for visualising data, to just get a quick look at, it can now be done in lightning speed and I am quite familiar with "manual data processing" in a few languages.

AI use me decently outcompetes manual me. Sometimes there are also stupid tasks. Data must be serialised in a certain way for some stupid reason. You prepare the info to be digested and the busywork can be done by agents with little oversight, which otherwise would have taken you a few hours. There simply is a limit in how fast you can read, look up field names, etc... If you outsource these critical paths to AI, you can gain productivity.

I also start way more side projects now and I like manual coding a lot.

[xigoi]

> It can put out code much faster than any software dev.

Judging a programmer by how much code they write is like judging an airplane engineer by how heavy their planes are.

[raxxorraxor]

Of course, it isn't the quantity. It is more about the features you wouldn't implement because manual dev takes a long time and why not let the AI spin up a non-critical site for administration or testing just for you. The cost/benefit calculation shifts a bit.

That said, if you get something quite heavy to lift off, it probably is a decent engineering feet. Not saying it would be the best plane :)