If AI writes your code, why use Python?

Posted by indigodaddy 1 day ago

If AI writes your code, why use Python?(medium.com)

895 points | 951 commentspage 17

sixdimensional 1 day ago|

First one to vibe code a language for LLMs, by LLMs, wins a cookie?

scotty79 11 hours ago||

I tried using Rust but the development just seemed too slow. C# gets you good results form AI.

CivBase 1 day ago||

This point only makes sense if you ship AI code without reviewing it. And if you're shipping AI code without reviewing it, you're going to run into much bigger problems than Python performance limitations.

lenerdenator 1 day ago||

1) I still have to comprehend it.

2) The corpus for the sort of applications I build is likely larger for Python than it is for C++ and Rust. Bigger corpus == more training data == better generated code.

3) The bottleneck in the applications I run aren't in the execution of the code; they're in the database/network latency.

4) I don't get anything extra for pushing Rust or C++ over Python.

pacificpendant 1 day ago|

If all the libraries are rust as the article claims having the top layer in Python probably makes even less difference.

I tend to agree with the article’s statement about the value of the test code though, may even have been true before LLM code took over.

wwarner 1 day ago||

Yes, and wondering why all the AI tooling is written in node.

sebastianconcpt 1 day ago||

Precieh*Rust*emsely

sgt 1 day ago||

How about modern Java? Any experiences?

munksbeer 1 day ago||

Disclaimer: I love writing production systems in Java. I was a C++ programmer for 10 years before moving to Java about 15 years ago. Java offers a virtually all in one package when writing large systems. You have a single language where you can write code that doesn't care to be the fastest possible, and you just rely on ZGC to do its thing, and it works. Or you can write GC free code with a mostly quite performant SoA type approach. You can do this in the same codebase, and developers don't need to know different languages to write either style of code. You then have one build system, one deployment system, an incredible set of observability tooling, etc, etc.

So I might be biased, but with the correct curation of AGENTS.md files and skills, we're getting extremely good results using Claude Code writing Java.

Another disclaimer: I haven't tried with another language, but we're happy with the results.

sgt 1 day ago||

Would be interesting to find out what kind of production systems you write in Java and how you deploy / scale them. What DB backends you use, caching, etc. And whether you're also on Spring.

munksbeer 1 day ago||

Always finance, trading systems. In the last 15 years mostly what they call "front office".

At the moment, for the place I work, we deploy on AWS mostly (because that is where our target trading venues often are). DB backends are largely not something we think about too much, because all of that is done out of band of course as a final state. Our main persistence is through our "bus" using aeron, and everything starts and recovers from there. This is not your typical enterprise java. No Spring.

sgt 1 day ago||

Ok that's quite interesting. Am I correct to presume this is crypto trading? I was under the impression most regular HFT is near the exchanges, or physically at the exchange in a DC. Unless it's an AWS Outpost or something.

DonHopkins 1 day ago||

The reason why Java is such a terrible choice now is not technical, it's the Lawnmower Nazi argument:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15886728

masklinn on Dec 9, 2017 | parent | context | favorite | on: Larry Ellison allegedly tried to have a professor ...

And remember,

> Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphising Larry Ellison. You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop it off, the end. You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' -- lawnmower doesn't give a shit about you, lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don't fall into that trap about Oracle. — Brian Cantrill (https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=33m1s)

And

> I actually think that it does a dis-service to not go to Nazi allegory because if I don't use Nazi allegory when referring to Oracle there's some critical understanding that I have left on the table […] in fact as I have said before I emphatically believe that if you have to explain the Nazis to someone who had never heard of World War 2 but was an Oracle customer there's a very good chance that you would explain the Nazis in Oracle allegory. — also Brian Cantrill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fvDDPaIoY&t=24m)

sgt 1 day ago||

Sure, I don't like Oracle either but Java has moved beyond that years ago. There's a thriving community that does not rely on Oracle.

DonHopkins 17 hours ago||

A thriving community of sharecroppers.

Now they have riding lawnmowers for their jack booted thugs, who buy media companies with the promise of firing journalists who hurt Trump's feelings.

Kinda of puts a harsh Java Supremacist edge on Sun's old "100% Pure Java" ideology.

Larry Ellison Promised to Fire CNN Anchors If Trump Approved Takeover

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/larry-ellison-promised-f...

mikeweiss 1 day ago||

So we can read and debug it if we'd like?

yangm97 1 day ago||

If AI writes your code, why use frameworks?

harrouet 1 day ago|

I am surprised that Python is being "threatened by AI writing code", as per the article, but that the said-article never wondered if the AI was more efficient writing in Python or what else.

I mean, the Python ecosystem is qualitative and generally well-documented. What if the AI spent 30% less tokens generating code than e.g. in Rust?

Or is there a kind of information theory where, given the same goals / tests, the AI will spent roughly the same in any language?

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