Like most programmers, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of programming. There’s a lot of chatter on the wild web that given LLMs can generate snippets, functions and even whole scripts based on prompts, and they’re often very good, that we’re headed to a world where human-written code may be less and less likely. We’re collaborating on code for now, but that won’t last. We will first alpha-go and then stockfish professional programmers out of existence.| Consumption Exhaust
After learning the basics of programming, we learn algorithms and data structures. I have very fond memories of implementing many algorithms and data structures in ANSI C and Java in the late 1990s. There was something very pleasurable in implementing well-known and well-defined computational concepts and then playing with them. Specifically, data structures like: arrays linked lists hash tables graphs stacks queues trees and on And algorithms like: binary search bubble sort quick sort heap s...| Consumption Exhaust
I posted to reddit, asking if other programmers learned the craft via copy work: Did you copy/transcribe code from books when learning to program? Lots of self-selecting confirmation bias + survivorship bias. E.g. those that survived (and are on reddit and comment on questions) used this method, those that didn’t, didn’t. I guess I really want to hear stories of people that don’t learn this way. The copy-and-pasters (code copypastas? the horror!). What is “copywork with code” called...| Consumption Exhaust
Over the last year, I rarely sit down and write code anymore. Instead, I have code generated and then iterate on it until we achieve the desired effect. I direct and collaborate. Similarly, to change existing code, I attach the file to a chat or paste the functions that require changes, summarize the change and iterate until it achieves the desired effect. My projects are almost always side projects. Whims. Ideas. Prototypes. Examples. Ad hoc’ery. Not production grade code.| Consumption Exhaust
Regarding Code Simple Algorithms and Data Structures: Which algorithms and data structures did we have to understand + code up back in introduction to compsci? I asked gemini 2.5 flash (why doesn’t it have a prominent copy button?): Data Structures Arrays Linked Lists (Singly, Doubly, Circular) Stacks Queues Trees (Binary Trees, Binary Search Trees) Hash Tables Algorithms Sorting Algorithms (Bubble Sort, Selection Sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort, Quick Sort) Searching Algorithms (Linear Se...| Posts on Consumption Exhaust
Vibe coding is amazingly productive, at least for experiments and prototypes. And fun. Recently, I’ve noticed something missing. A feeling. The feeling you get when thinking hard while crafting a piece of code. Of desk checking it in your head. Of thinking through edges cases. I’m missing the feeling of making my brain sweat while crafting some code. I had an idea: Why not code up simple algorithms and data structures from scratch for “fun”?| Posts on Consumption Exhaust
