r/AskProgramming • u/[deleted] • 13h ago
Anyone would still program by hand if they had the choice to do so?
[deleted]
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u/Serana64 13h ago
I work as a specialized programmer for NPOs and not only can program by hand, I must program by hand (the contracts prohibit the use of AI). It's the kind of stuff that has to work long after I've left.
I also do game development as a hobby and code by hand. I am not paying any kind of subscription for an AI boost when I am perfectly happy and capable of programming on my own.
For hobby development, I understand AI can be powerful and I'm sure I could code stuff faster with a fable subscription, but I wouldn't enjoy it. And if I don't enjoy it, what's the point?
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u/Narrow-Low-3137 13h ago
I work for a small company. I still program mainly by hand. I use LLM for reference, or to flesh out my plans. Mainly because Google and search on general have gotten so terrible these days.
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u/MetaCognitio 12h ago
It’s great for reference, asking questions, getting things that the docs might not explain clearly, getting ideas, etc but if you vibe code, you’ll easily end up with a pile of code you do not understand.
Not terrible for one shot bits of code but awful if you are making a big project and want to have quality.
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u/Dissentient 12h ago
There's a lot of room between rawdogging code and vibe coding. If you read through all of the AI code and correct the issues, you can get the same quality that you can get manually, but significantly faster.
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u/Narrow-Low-3137 12h ago
Yeah, this is what I do. I rarely just cut and paste code into the editor without modifying to fit may architecture .
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u/Dissentient 11h ago
People don't really copypaste code now, they just have LLMs edit code directly in their repository. LLMs are also trained to keep your architecture and patterns.
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u/Narrow-Low-3137 11h ago
Yeah, I understand that. I don't like it, so I don't use it.
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u/Proof-Pineapple69 9h ago
If you're copy pasting you're probably using super old model. No wonder you don't like the output quality
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u/Narrow-Low-3137 8h ago
I just like taking ownership of my work. I'd rather write code than review it.
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u/Proof-Pineapple69 8h ago
You won't survive long in the world of AI unless you happen to be in a very specific sector where AI is incapable of writing your code.
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u/Narrow-Low-3137 8h ago
Time will tell. Enjoy having someone else write your code.
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u/Cybyss 13h ago
I used to enjoy coding, but more as it was 20+ years ago.
Even pre-ChatGPT, the field was getting too crazy for me.
I loved when it was about mastering a small number of powerful, general purpose tools from which anything could be built. Creating software was a logic problem, your imagination was the only limit.
The field moved away from that though, to where you needed to be more of a "jack of all trades" - being able to navigate a vast turbulent ocean of frameworks, languages, libraries, tools, and "best practices" that seem to change every couple of years. By the time you master a framework - to where you really understand how it works, not merely how to use it - it's already becoming obsolete. I feel like writing software changed from being mostly a logic problem to mostly a research problem - researching the right components that claim to solve your problem for you, then finding a way to plug them together.
I would love to go back to the days when DOOM was made with nothing but expert knowledge of C, algorithms, and a smattering of clever mathematics. But those days are gone.
Soon, the days of building anything yourself will be gone. Programmers will be more like architects - describing the overall system, business rules, and test strategies only in plain English, and the AI will hide all the technical implementation details from you.
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u/Beautiful-Painter877 13h ago
I still code by hand as much as allowed. My workplace tries to force me but until now I can code by myself. In private projects I never use AI.
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u/Silamoth 12h ago
Plenty of us are still productive writing code ‘by hand’. You’re far from alone. I’d posit most programmers outside Big Tech are still writing a majority of code by hand. I don’t have any hard data on that, though.
Certainly it seems a lot of programmers are using LLMs for some code (I don’t). But this idea that no one writes anything by hand is a fantasy with little basis in reality.
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u/BagOfWetToiletPaper 12h ago
I write my code by hand, my colleagues write reams of indecipherable code that will be unmanageable long term, absolutely just zero organization to it. I'm expecting to get laid off at some point. I work for a small, unprofitable company, and at some point they're just going to decide I'm not needed, and then they'll probably call me when the wheels fall off the bus.
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u/chiasmatic_nucleus 12h ago
I let my team make that choice them selves. As long as stuff is getting delivered by the expected timeframe and the code is readable/maintainable - do whatever you want.
When I quote/estimate work for the team I still estimate it like it's being coded by hand.
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u/Alternative_Ride41 12h ago
Hand coding is the only way to maintain actual ownership of software. Relying on generation tools means accepting code you do not understand and cannot defend when it breaks.
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u/Delaneybuffett 11h ago
I miss it. Yea I don’t miss some of the repetitive things but you built a library of those or called the softwares library. What I miss is figuring things out.
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u/Wooden-Glove-2384 10h ago
I enjoy solving problems.
I enjoy getting results.
I got no problem offloading means to achieve this.
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u/Proof-Pineapple69 10h ago
Not in a million years. I get so much done with AI.
Its a bit like asking if I'd rather walk to work for 2h everyday instead of taking a 20 minutes train.
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u/screwuapple 13h ago
For work, use a lot of AI for repetitive/boiler plate stuff. For personal stuff I mainly code by hand because I enjoy it
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u/Conscious_Trust5048 13h ago
I prefer to code by hand. Still use Vim most days. I do use LLMs for some tasks. But I prefer to do the mental work myself so I have a better understanding of the code. It's always harder to read someone else's code, whether they are human or LLM.
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u/big_data_mike 12h ago
I still code by hand often. A lot of times I find it takes more time to clean up AI slop than to just write it by hand
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u/ciurana 11h ago
I work with very complex code, so I’d say the split for me is around 85/15 in LLM:manual.
I enjoy coding by hand, and there are things that are easier and faster to address myself than the time it’d take me to write the prompt and fine tune the answer. I enjoy those little spurts.
Programming is enjoyable and rewarding, but the economic and business reality Is that LLM output is more efficient and cost-effective.
One more thing: LLMs display intelligence but lack understanding. Problem domain expertise and coding ability are imperative to get good results out of them by shaping the quality of the prompts.
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u/SpareImpression3155 11h ago
Yeah I really miss writing this same dog shit crud apps and cookie cutter corporate frontends by hand. Having AI do it for me in 3 minutes instead of wasting 3 days of my life is dreadful
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u/Alextuxedo 13h ago
I'm a student, so right now my main focus is writing code by hand, and I do hope to maintain that focus, at the very least on personal projects.
Thinking out solutions manually is pretty fun in my opinion, even if it isn't the fastest option. Keeps your brain sharp, too.
I'll probably use AI for work if my employer says so, though. Gotta eat, after all.
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u/Dissentient 13h ago
Opposite for me. I started working on personal projects because of AI, since with it I can make something useful in a weekend. Before AI, they would have taken long enough not to be worth the effort.
When it comes to jobslop, it's a slog either way. I never enjoyed typing semicolons and parentheses, so having AI do it just lets me focus on domain knowledge and requirements to make sure what I'm writing is actually useful, while AI puts more effort into code than I would have done manually.
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u/geekichu 13h ago
no. and from someone who loved it for 40yrs. i can create a lot faster now and try things i wouldnt before due to the effort and what if it's a bad idea.. etc..etc.
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u/itemluminouswadison 13h ago
you must have some serious main character syndrome if you really think that. obviously many people enjoy coding on their own, yes.