Post #2424911

2026-02-18 13:29 UTC

I will say one thing for generative AI: since these tools function by remixing/translating existing information, that vibe programming is so popular demonstrates a colossal failure on the part of our industry in not making this stuff easier. If a giant ball of statistics can mostly knock up a working app in minutes, this shows not that gen-AI is insanely clever, but that most of the work in making an app has always been stupid. We have gatekeeped programming behind vast walls of nonsense.

Replies (2)

@jonathanhogg@mastodon.social 2026-02-18 13:51

We seem to have largely stopped innovating on trying to lower barriers to programming in favour of creating endless new frameworks and libraries for a vanishingly small number of near-identical languages. It is the mid-2020s and people are wringing their hands over Rust as if it was some inexplicable new thing rather than a C-derivative that incorporates decades old type theory. You know what I consider to be genuinely ground-breaking programming tools? VisiCalc, HyperCard and Scratch.

Open ##2424912
@bit101@mstdn.social 2026-02-18 13:34

@jonathanhogg@mastodon.social I'd add that everything is built on frameworks now. Programming has mostly become configuring the framework and coming up with the correct business logic and decent UX / styling. And since most apps these days do the same kind of things, with different data, AI's job should be easy. Humans still manage to mess up the important bits like security, privacy, performance. And AI is even worse at those things.

Open ##2424917