Questions: 1) Which AI platform did you use? 2) Did it create a binary image of the floppy disk (an ADF perhaps)? If not, what form did it take?

People wanting to explore the use of generative AI for vintage computers is happening not just for graphics but for code too.

I think in the case of code though, it's still interesting because I don't believe there's been any success yet. I hear of people having success with Claude in contemporary settings but it seems to fare less well when working for older computing platforms. There's a reason for that of course and it's worth exploring.

However, it will cease to be interesting as soon as the first person manages to create something substantial. At the point, the scene should probably shun it for the reasons stated in the quote.

The problem was that many people insisted on the glass being filled to the brim, because they felt they were being short changed. So it solved one problem but created another.

It's an interesting idea. I think I prefer the exiftool syntax over what's suggested in the blog. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

The only difference is that those tools have chosen easy to remember names rather than embedding the arguments as metadata in the filename.

As a generalisation of the idea though, the blog post is neat.

Taking time to solve a problem myself is pleasurable and I make no apologies for that.

Horses for courses.

I'm thinking about how to solve the problem and how to express it in the programming language such that it is easy to maintain. Getting someone/something else to do that doesn't help me.

But different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

I'm sure it can. I'd still like a single use tool though.

But that's just my taste. I'm very simple. I don't even use an IDE.

edit: to expand on what I mean. I would love it if there was a tool that has conquered the problem and doesn't require me to chat with it. I'm all for LLMs helping and facilitating the coding process, but I'm so far disappointed in the experience. I want something more like the traditional process but using LLMs to solve problems that would be otherwise difficult to solve computationally.

I want less ambitious LLM powered tools than what's being offered. For example, I'd love a tool that can analyse whether comments have been kept up to date with the code they refer to. I don't want it to change anything I just want it to tell me of any problems. A linter basically. I imagine LLMs would be a good foundation for this.

For stuff in the standard library proper, the versioning system is working well for it. For example, the json library is now at v2. Code relying on the original json API can still be compiled.

Correct. But they are being marketed as being intelligent and can easily convince a casual observer that they are through the confidence of their responses. I think that's a problem. I think AI companies are encouraging people to use these tools irresponsibly. I think the tools should be improved so they can't be misused.

"Incidentally, those structures are also the sorts of things that greatly benefit human programmers."

Correct. And that's why I have testing in place and why I used it to show that the race condition had been introduced.

No. I was vague and got a concrete suggestion.

I have no issue with people using Claude in an optimal way. The problem is that it's too easy to use in a poor way.

My example was to test my own curiosity about whether these tools live up to the claims that they'll be replacing programmers. On the evidence I've seen I don't believe they will and I don't see how Go is any different to any other language in that regard.

IMO, for tools like Claude to be truly useful, they need to understand their own limitations and refuse to work unless the conditions are correct. As you say, it works best when you tell it precisely what you want. So why doesn't Claude recognise when you're not being precise and refuse to work until you are?

To reiterate, I think coding assistants are great when used in the optimal way.

If you mean, put the LLM in the test harness. Sure, I accept that that's the best way to use the tools. The problem is that there's nothing requiring me or anyone else to do that.

I guess I just don't see what the point of these tools are. If I was to guide the tool in the way you describe, I don't see how that's better than just thinking about and writing the code myself.

I'm prepared to be shown differently of course, but I remain highly sceptical.

I tried out the latest Claude model last weekend. As a test I asked it to identify areas for performance improvement in one of my projects. One of the areas looked significant and truth be told, was an area I expected to see in the list.

I asked it to implement the fix. It was a dozen or so lines and I could see straightaway that it had introduced a race condition. I tested it and sure enough, there was a race condition.

I told it about the problem and it suggested a further fix that didn't solve the race condition at all. In fact, the second fix only tried to hide the problem.

I don't doubt you can use these tools well, but it's far too easy to use them poorly. There are no guard rails. I also believe that they are marketed without any care that they can be used poorly.

Whether Go is a better language for agentic programming or not, I don't know. But it may be to do with what the language is being used for. My example was a desktop GUI application and there'll be far fewer examples of those types of application written in Go.