I've been writing code by hand for 30 years and nowadays use LLM too for embedded and Android development among other stuff. It saves a lot of time and is amazing that it can debug multiple embedded devices connected to the computer far better than my doing it by myself.
There is certainly slop but it was always like this in software engineering, just that now is far easier for anyone to write code that runs on ESP32 which in my opinion was already quite easy in the past but frankly bothersome to get any complex project running.
I'm old enough to remember when other developers criticized heavily the usage of Turbo Pascal in the 90s because "it wasn't a real compiler" but reality is that it made software writing far easier and fun for a whole new generation of kids. It seems we are going through a similar wave, it will take time until this settles as a new tool.
Comments
I've been writing code by hand for 30 years and nowadays use LLM too for embedded and Android development among other stuff. It saves a lot of time and is amazing that it can debug multiple embedded devices connected to the computer far better than my doing it by myself.
There is certainly slop but it was always like this in software engineering, just that now is far easier for anyone to write code that runs on ESP32 which in my opinion was already quite easy in the past but frankly bothersome to get any complex project running.
I'm old enough to remember when other developers criticized heavily the usage of Turbo Pascal in the 90s because "it wasn't a real compiler" but reality is that it made software writing far easier and fun for a whole new generation of kids. It seems we are going through a similar wave, it will take time until this settles as a new tool.