recently I gave AI a task to configure a software and the software didn’t have any docs of how it works only the source code. the agent went through all the files and generated a summary of how it works and why it’s not working for my particular scenario and suggested edits to my docker-compose.yml file. I couldn’t believe it since the bug was very hard to find and it used headless firefox to find why it wasn’t working.

made me realize do we still need documentation of how a software work when a AI can easily explain it?

  • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
    1·
    14 hours ago

    E.g. for one-off web page design it’s been good enough for a long time.

    In just the last two months, I’ve been handed the following web projects:

    • A page filled with bootstrap style div-soup
    • A page filled with tailwind style class-soup
    • A slideshow webapp that has duplicated state and three different ways to change slides (navigate(), goTo(), and changeSlide()).
    • A slop-grenade of a chatbot interface for navigating a user through a flow chart, documentation of the flow chart, and documentation of the logic of the flow chart, all of which conflict with each other.

    I think the effect you’re seeing is that different people have different levels of “good enough”

    I think the effect that I’m seeing is twofold:

    1. People don’t realise that every line of code is a liability.
    2. People think that once they have something on the screen that looks finished, the project is finished. They haven’t thought about support or maintainability at all, and since they are completely inexperienced about such things: they aren’t qualified enough to when when a project is “even done”, let alone “good enough”.
    • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
      1·
      8 hours ago

      People think that once they have something on the screen that looks finished, the project is finished.

      For .one-off web page that is true. You and I might not like that under the hood it’s a mess but we have to accept that if it works anyway and nobody is going to need to change it, that’s fine.

      Also the latest models don’t even make a mess any more.

      • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
        1·
        6 hours ago

        For .one-off web page that is true

        There’s not really any such thing as a one off web page.

        It’s eventually going to need to be updated or reused for something else.

        The only exceptions being if your company goes under, force majure, or if you have something with the same requirements but choose to make the same thing again from scratch for no real reason , which is just being inefficient and unreasonable.

        Also the latest models don’t even make a mess any more.

        Yeah… I’m calling bullshit on that, all four projects I was handed was made by the latest models and it will continue being an issue for the foreseeable future. (see a previous comment of mine for reasoning: https://programming.dev/post/57569685/26398217)