@jmcastagnetto@mastodon.social
Post #643217
2026-03-11 13:51 UTC
#TIL that, again, #Djikstra was a ahead of his time, saying that what we call #VibeCoding is flawed because a language is a less precise tool than a formal representation:
'On the foolishness of "natural language programming"' (late 1970s)
https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD667.html
#AI
Replies (3)
-
@futuresprog@mastodon.nzoss.nz 2026-03-11 18:37
Good find. @jmcastagnetto
-
@notsoloud@expressional.social 2026-03-15 06:46
@jmcastagnetto Formal representation is really hard for most humans. For this and other reasons, much of pre-LLM software is so lousy that the issues introduced by "natural language programming" are just a small part of the problem. Vibe coders are not competing against perfect software. They are competing against the mess we have now.
-
@mike@sauropods.win 2026-03-16 09:58
@jmcastagnetto As usual for Dijskstra, excellent analysis written in lumpen, impenetrable prose.