I came across this story from a software engineer that broke his arm and kept going using generative AI (Claude specifically) to keep going. In fact, he was so productive that now he can’t imagine being coding without it. Here is an AI generated summary with the original article link below the summary.
GenAI Summary (Apple Intelligence):
The author recounts their experience using AI to write code after breaking their hand. They found that AI-generated code was often more efficient and accurate than their own, and developed strategies for effectively collaborating with AI tools. The author envisions a future where AI engineers work alongside human engineers, automating repetitive tasks and providing guidance on complex problems.
I’m not really an AI guy but I installed the ChatGPT app on my Mac and signed up for a free account - seemed the thing to do.
Whilst working on an accounting solution in Filemaker I needed some fairly complex calculation fields. I asked ChatGPT and within moments it had nicely crafted, working fields which I could paste straight to Filemaker.
I asked it to create some scripts and it did a great job of creating them but Filemaker wouldn’t let me paste into the script area (I could have sworn I could do this in other versions).
I know I could have written all this but I doubt I could have done it as quickly and error free (on a first try) as ChatGPT.
If it doesn’t revolutionise coding it’s going to go very close.
As a filmmaker developer my self not being able to cut and past scripts has been that way for ever. but at least if its a long script you can follow the steps from AI. Its not optimal work flow though
I agree. Under the management and accountability of a person, I expect to see the typical coding world change dramatically. I have to admit that I’m disappointed in Apple with Xcode. From what I’ve seen so far, they are doing about what you can get in Cursor or numerous other IDE’s for months–basically a better code completion tool. While nice, it is certainly not thinking different.
I was hoping for Apple to announce they had Xcode (like you see them developing now) and maybe NeXcode (yes, a nod to SJ). NeXcode would be more Devin-like but with Apple’s resource much better.
Is there anyone out there using GenAI tools to refactor projects or using it to convert old code to new languages? For the latter, I’m really curious to hear about experience converting COBOL.