[JetSetIlly]

I accept what you say about the best way to use these agents. But my worry is that there is nothing that requires people to use them in that way. I was deliberately vague and general in my test. I don't think how Claude responded under those conditions was good at all.

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.

[wild_egg]

Just want to say upfront: this mindset is completely baffling to me.

Someone gives you a hammer. You've never seen one before. They tell you it's a great new tool with so many ways to use it. So you hook a bag on both ends and use it to carry your groceries home.

You hear lots of people are using their own hammers to make furniture and fix things around the home.

Your response is "I accept what you say about the best way to use these hammers. But my worry is that there is nothing that requires people to use them in that way."

These things are not intelligent. They're just tools. If you don't use a guide with your band saw, you aren't going to get straight cuts. If you want straight cuts from your AI, you need the right structure around it to keep it on track.

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

[JetSetIlly]

"These things are not intelligent. They're just tools."

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.

[strawhatguy]

Okay. If you’re being vague, you get vague results.

Golang and Claude have worked well for me, on existing production codebases, because I tell it precisely what I want and it does it.

I’ve never found generic “find performance issues” just by reading the code helpful.

Write specifications, give it freedom to implement, and it can surprise you.

Hell once it thought of how to backfill existing data with the change I was making, completely unasked. And I’m like that’s awesome

[JetSetIlly]

"Okay. If you’re being vague, you get vague results."

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.