[marcellus23]

All of this is written with a sense of anger and sarcastic invective that doesn't seem appropriate. This is part of learning any new language or API. Going in with an attitude of "I should already know how all this works, why am I forced to do research or look at docs?" seems unfair and will spoil the experience of learning anything.

> Why was that so hard? Why are the models here separate from the ones in the right click menu? Too many questions.

The very screenshot above this paragraph actually answers this, in what admittedly might be an uncharacteristically clear UI: "Siri and Safari will always run translations online."

[n8cpdx]

This is a story about the risks of AI-induced brainrot. You get so used to having the computer just do your work, that the second you need to engage your noggin you’re lost at sea. Or at least just frustrated.

Reading and understanding the docs and reference material has always been part of the work.

Aside from the commentary it read like an advertisement for how great the swift/macos translation APIs are. PEBCAK

[bfbf]

Gotta say as a Swift dev I agree—followed the link the to Translate docs and was pleasantly surprised to see a discussion section clearly explaining the usage, which is not always the case for Apple APIs! But this wasn’t really just an article about the API. It was about the complexity of trying to build on the stack of Swift/SPM/ParseableCommand/Foundation/Concurrency/Translation without having a good grasp of any of them. I was frustrated reading it, but I think it does point to the underlying knowledge that’s needed to be proficient at something like this. None of it is a particular indictment of Swift as an ecosystem (though there are lots of valid criticisms)-it’s just the nature of development and something that’s massively eroded by relying too much on these ghosts

[IncreasePosts]

The problem is there are a wide class of problems that you want solved but putting on the work will prevent you from actually doing the task because the cost isn't worth the reward. Because it's for a low impact tool. Or you can't imagine yourself dealing with this API again within a year or two by which time it will probably be completely different with v2 of the API.

So, you reach for AI and it works really well. So you start reaching for that more and more...

[thorum]

I remember reading and hearing similar rants from programmers 15 years ago, long before LLMs. The author kept going and figured it out, and probably got some pride and enjoyment from finishing the project in spite of the frustrating moments. That’s what learning to code has always been like.

[eptcyka]

Coming from other languages, figuring out how to get an NWConnection to work was not trivial and just reading the interface docs did not help. I empathise with the frustration of reading apple docs. Sure, the tone isn’t professional, but I don’t believe that is out of place.

[xtiansimon]

> “All of this is written with a sense of anger and sarcastic invective that doesn't seem appropriate.”

Huh. The end of the piece says the author was “frustrated”. And throughout the author says things at the end of paragraphs like, _the result was an error x, but I already have/did x!_

I read the piece because I was curious about this description of “anger”. I relate to the journey as the author describes it—frustration. Though, there are a few “dramatic” words here and there. Not least of which is in the title, “unbearable”. But I usually mark that as a crutch in the personal Blog medium.

On a more pedagogical note, encountering a personal piece like this documenting a journey of idea to (near) success is an important genre of tech writing for one’s self and maybe others. As others have noted the OPs missteps, so too the OP, with hindsight, can revisit the piece and notice where they went wrong. If you’re away from the language/project for a while a piece like this is a good review before starting the next project.

[brabel]

Most of the author's frustration was due to lack of good feedback from Swift.

Like, how can it run a command that has an `async` main despite the fact that you didn't extend the async version of command?? That should've been an error (e.g. "bro, you cannot have an async main in this class, you need the Async version of this class which is called AsyncWhatever").

Not awaiting on an async function should be at least a warning. Another frustrating lack of feedback: it just lets you run it and nothing happens.

The version thing: it should show all possible variants in the enum, even the ones you should not be able to use, and then when you try using it, show an error saying "you need to change the version of this file to at least blah to use this". Why can't the Swift LSP do that? Apple has a trillion dollars, they can afford polishing their stuff.

The author is used to Rust, which would've made it very clear what was wrong in all cases.

Swift, being as modern as Rust, should be doing better than that. Languages that fail to give you proper error messages and warnings are just not worth it: just one of these "wtf is going on?" moments can cost you hours. Just use a better language if you can.

[eptcyka]

Swift ultimately is a language that is expected to be compiled by xcode. Package.swift isn’t even properly supported by Xcode still.

[another_twist]

Disagree here. APIs are meant for using and not learning. But the context matters here. For some paid system, there better be an API thats easy to use or I am throwing AI at the problem or hoping someone else will do it. If its something worth learning - say Guava data structures or RocksDb core - yup I'll invest the time to learn. That learning transfers over. But trying to learn some shitty AWS api and its nuances, no thanks. Some payment system that a handful of people use - no thanks again.

[epgui]

Language is meant for using, not learning. Why is Arabic/French/Chinese/etc so difficult?