Also re: "I spent longer arguing with the agent and recovering the file than I would have spent writing the test myself."
In my humble experience arguing with an LLM is a waste of time, and no-one should be spending time recovering files. Just do small changes one at a time, commit when you get something working, and discard your changes and try again if it doesn't.
I don't think AI is a panacea, it's just knowing when it's the right tool for the job and when it isn't.
Anyone not using version control or a IDE that will keep previous versions for a easy jump back is just being silly. If you're going to play with a kid who has a gun, wear your plates.
Once, I told a friend that it was stupid that Claude Code didn't have native IDE integration. His answer: “You don't need an IDE with Claude Code.”
I've begun to suspect response that this technology triggers a kind of religion in some people. The technology is obviously perfect, so that any problems you might have are because of you.
I find that I vastly prefer Gemini CLI to antigravity, despite the latter being an ide. Others feel the opposite. I believe it comes down to how you are using AI. It's great they both options exist for both types of people.
I don’t think it’s “just” that easy. AI can be great at generating unit tests but it can and will also frequently silently hack said tests to make them pass rather than using them as good indicators of what the program is supposed to be doing.
> AI can be great at generating unit tests but it can and will also frequently silently hack said tests to make them pass rather than using them as good indicators of what the program is supposed to be doing.
Unit testing is my number one use case for gen AI in SWE. I just find the style / concept often slightly different than I would personally do, so I end up editing the whole thing.
But, it’s great at getting me past the unpleasant “activation energy threshold” of having a test written in the first place.
Also re: "I spent longer arguing with the agent and recovering the file than I would have spent writing the test myself."
In my humble experience arguing with an LLM is a waste of time, and no-one should be spending time recovering files. Just do small changes one at a time, commit when you get something working, and discard your changes and try again if it doesn't.
I don't think AI is a panacea, it's just knowing when it's the right tool for the job and when it isn't.