@losttourist@social.chatty.monsterIt's not a language or a framework that I ever use, but I think that "don't be too clever" is one of the most important rules that every software developer should abide by.
#SoftwareEngineering #Programming #coding
@sean@scoat.es@… @… That’s what I mean, though. I think that’s starting to happen.
“The devs are busy, so I whipped up this thing in a day” is toxic. The devs could have whipped it up in a day, too, but they wouldn’t have to spend a week (tha…
@timbray@cosocial.caMastodon 4.4 is about to ship. Overview for developers: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/07/mastodon-4-4-for-devs/
@gedankenstuecke@scholar.socialIt's at least the second time that I see maintainers of "#opensource" be actively and strongly upset that people (as in other free/open source devs, not big corps) actually make use of the licensing terms that they gave to their software.
It's just baffling to me. Is it that people don't understand the implications of the licenses they choose? That they never actually believed in the freedoms they gave but just thought it sounded sexy somehow, wanting to have their cake and eat it too?
@pavelasamsonov@mastodon.socialEveryone thinks #AI can do someone else's job. Designers want to get rid of PMs. PMs think they no longer need devs. Devs can't wait to generate designs. And managers are anticipating getting rid of us all.
Alas, in the few cases the tools work at all, they get you no more than 80% of the way there. Without experts to identify where that 20-100% gap is, you have nothing.
I've …
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialShould we teach vibe coding? Here's why not.
Should AI coding be taught in undergrad CS education?
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I teach undergraduate computer science labs, including for intro and more-advanced core courses. I don't publish (non-negligible) scholarly work in the area, but I've got years of craft expertise in course design, and I do follow the academic literature to some degree. In other words, In not the world's leading expert, but I have spent a lot of time thinking about course design, and consider myself competent at it, with plenty of direct experience in what knowledge & skills I can expect from students as they move through the curriculum.
I'm also strongly against most uses of what's called "AI" these days (specifically, generative deep neutral networks as supplied by our current cadre of techbro). There are a surprising number of completely orthogonal reasons to oppose the use of these systems, and a very limited number of reasonable exceptions (overcoming accessibility barriers is an example). On the grounds of environmental and digital-commons-pollution costs alone, using specifically the largest/newest models is unethical in most cases.
But as any good teacher should, I constantly question these evaluations, because I worry about the impact on my students should I eschew teaching relevant tech for bad reasons (and even for his reasons). I also want to make my reasoning clear to students, who should absolutely question me on this. That inspired me to ask a simple question: ignoring for one moment the ethical objections (which we shouldn't, of course; they're very stark), at what level in the CS major could I expect to teach a course about programming with AI assistance, and expect students to succeed at a more technically demanding final project than a course at the same level where students were banned from using AI? In other words, at what level would I expect students to actually benefit from AI coding "assistance?"
To be clear, I'm assuming that students aren't using AI in other aspects of coursework: the topic of using AI to "help you study" is a separate one (TL;DR it's gross value is not negative, but it's mostly not worth the harm to your metacognitive abilities, which AI-induced changes to the digital commons are making more important than ever).
So what's my answer to this question?
If I'm being incredibly optimistic, senior year. Slightly less optimistic, second year of a masters program. Realistic? Maybe never.
The interesting bit for you-the-reader is: why is this my answer? (Especially given that students would probably self-report significant gains at lower levels.) To start with, [this paper where experienced developers thought that AI assistance sped up their work on real tasks when in fact it slowed it down] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09089) is informative. There are a lot of differences in task between experienced devs solving real bugs and students working on a class project, but it's important to understand that we shouldn't have a baseline expectation that AI coding "assistants" will speed things up in the best of circumstances, and we shouldn't trust self-reports of productivity (or the AI hype machine in general).
Now we might imagine that coding assistants will be better at helping with a student project than at helping with fixing bugs in open-source software, since it's a much easier task. For many programming assignments that have a fixed answer, we know that many AI assistants can just spit out a solution based on prompting them with the problem description (there's another elephant in the room here to do with learning outcomes regardless of project success, but we'll ignore this over too, my focus here is on project complexity reach, not learning outcomes). My question is about more open-ended projects, not assignments with an expected answer. Here's a second study (by one of my colleagues) about novices using AI assistance for programming tasks. It showcases how difficult it is to use AI tools well, and some of these stumbling blocks that novices in particular face.
But what about intermediate students? Might there be some level where the AI is helpful because the task is still relatively simple and the students are good enough to handle it? The problem with this is that as task complexity increases, so does the likelihood of the AI generating (or copying) code that uses more complex constructs which a student doesn't understand. Let's say I have second year students writing interactive websites with JavaScript. Without a lot of care that those students don't know how to deploy, the AI is likely to suggest code that depends on several different frameworks, from React to JQuery, without actually setting up or including those frameworks, and of course three students would be way out of their depth trying to do that. This is a general problem: each programming class carefully limits the specific code frameworks and constructs it expects students to know based on the material it covers. There is no feasible way to limit an AI assistant to a fixed set of constructs or frameworks, using current designs. There are alternate designs where this would be possible (like AI search through adaptation from a controlled library of snippets) but those would be entirely different tools.
So what happens on a sizeable class project where the AI has dropped in buggy code, especially if it uses code constructs the students don't understand? Best case, they understand that they don't understand and re-prompt, or ask for help from an instructor or TA quickly who helps them get rid of the stuff they don't understand and re-prompt or manually add stuff they do. Average case: they waste several hours and/or sweep the bugs partly under the rug, resulting in a project with significant defects. Students in their second and even third years of a CS major still have a lot to learn about debugging, and usually have significant gaps in their knowledge of even their most comfortable programming language. I do think regardless of AI we as teachers need to get better at teaching debugging skills, but the knowledge gaps are inevitable because there's just too much to know. In Python, for example, the LLM is going to spit out yields, async functions, try/finally, maybe even something like a while/else, or with recent training data, the walrus operator. I can't expect even a fraction of 3rd year students who have worked with Python since their first year to know about all these things, and based on how students approach projects where they have studied all the relevant constructs but have forgotten some, I'm not optimistic seeing these things will magically become learning opportunities. Student projects are better off working with a limited subset of full programming languages that the students have actually learned, and using AI coding assistants as currently designed makes this impossible. Beyond that, even when the "assistant" just introduces bugs using syntax the students understand, even through their 4th year many students struggle to understand the operation of moderately complex code they've written themselves, let alone written by someone else. Having access to an AI that will confidently offer incorrect explanations for bugs will make this worse.
To be sure a small minority of students will be able to overcome these problems, but that minority is the group that has a good grasp of the fundamentals and has broadened their knowledge through self-study, which earlier AI-reliant classes would make less likely to happen. In any case, I care about the average student, since we already have plenty of stuff about our institutions that makes life easier for a favored few while being worse for the average student (note that our construction of that favored few as the "good" students is a large part of this problem).
To summarize: because AI assistants introduce excess code complexity and difficult-to-debug bugs, they'll slow down rather than speed up project progress for the average student on moderately complex projects. On a fixed deadline, they'll result in worse projects, or necessitate less ambitious project scoping to ensure adequate completion, and I expect this remains broadly true through 4-6 years of study in most programs (don't take this as an endorsement of AI "assistants" for masters students; we've ignored a lot of other problems along the way).
There's a related problem: solving open-ended project assignments well ultimately depends on deeply understanding the problem, and AI "assistants" allow students to put a lot of code in their file without spending much time thinking about the problem or building an understanding of it. This is awful for learning outcomes, but also bad for project success. Getting students to see the value of thinking deeply about a problem is a thorny pedagogical puzzle at the best of times, and allowing the use of AI "assistants" makes the problem much much worse. This is another area I hope to see (or even drive) pedagogical improvement in, for what it's worth.
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@jake4480@c.im
@denmanrooke@social.coopDo any game devs in my network here live and work in Donegal?
I have some other game devs I know looking to connect up with other game devs locally. Give me a shout!
#IrishGameDev #GameDev #IndieDev
@pre@boing.world
@cheeaun@mastodon.socialQuite annoyed that i18next has many versions of its own JSON format (now v4) https://www.i18next.com/misc/json-format — every time there's a new version, devs have to convert existing translation files to the new format *and* ensure that their translation management platform (e.g. Crowdin) already…
@Techmeme@techhub.socialAnthropic expands Claude's Learning Mode, available only to Education users since an April launch, to all users, including two learning variants for Claude Code (Igor Bonifacic/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-brin
@fanf@mendeddrum.orgfrom my link log —
Jujutsu for busy devs.
https://maddie.wtf/posts/2025-07-21-jujutsu-for-busy-devs
saved 2025-07-29 h…
@laxsill@social.spejset.orgen av världens bästa spelstudios tar ställning mot folkmordet! https://www.gamespot.com/articles/arkane-devs-call-for-microsoft-to-stop-working-with-israel/1100-6533901/
@denmanrooke@social.coopAre you interested in Worker Cooperative game dev studios?
What about building your own someday with fellow collaborators?
Then pop along to this online panel discussion from game devs in cooperatives doing just that! Details below 👇
https://social.coop/@denmanrooke/114955247…
@teledyn@mstdn.ca
@kubikpixel@chaos.social
@aardrian@toot.cafeI had reason to break out my very brief tutorial on styling links and buttons today:
https://adrianroselli.com/2023/08/styling-links-and-buttons.html
I wrote it because I’ve encountered many devs who use the wrong element claiming they can’t style …
@jonippolito@digipres.clubWeb devs have spent decades on secure protocols to ensure your browser isn't a free pass for malicious pages to scrape your email and bank account. AI just broke them.
"Sure, I'll summarize that webpage for you, including the inconspicuous HTML comment asking me to ignore Cross-Origin Resource Sharing restrictions and snag the password you saved for managing investments at Robinhood.com."
@jerome@jasette.facil.servicesAsk HN: Any active COBOL devs here? What are you working on?
#cobol
@ErikJonker@mastodon.socialHow AI Vibe Coding Is Erasing Developers’ Skills
Developers believe AI is boosting their productivity, but it is actually weakening core coding skills. Vibe coding is creating a generation of devs who cannot debug, design, or solve problems without AI.
https://www.finalroundai.com/blog…
@almad@fosstodon.orgFunny how even 5 years ago devs were looking down on QA and now the entire workforce is retraining to be a QA for AI output
@hakona@im.alstadheim.no
@colgrave@social.linux.pizzaI'm sad..
I been follow them basically since day one. And they been the most exciting stories in my rss feed
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/with-need-for-speed-devs-working-on-battlefi…
@shanmukhateja@social.linux.pizzaThis is a great initiative. Please check the GitHub link on the attached post if you use Linux on Tablet PC.
From: @…
https://floss.social/@kde/114745104649286…
@Nathan@social.lostinok.com
@thomastraynor@social.linux.pizzaThis is for DEVS ->
When you write an interface program to load data from an external source you DO NOT ABEND if the key field in the input file is not in the database. YOU WRITE AN ERROR REPORT and continue on. If you do need to abend then make sure your program has checkpoint logic and not rollback of EVERY transaction and then put out full information on what caused the abend, which input file and what record.
BTW, also put in edit rules for fields before even trying to s…
@tml@urbanists.socialIs it odd to feel rebellious for *not* doing/liking something that the majority of people in some group you belong to do/like, and which they maybe think is a sign of non-conformity?
I don’t like metal/heavy music (even though most of Finns who aren’t into horrible tango/schlager do).
I don’t put stickers on my laptop (like most FLOSS devs/fans do).
I have no tattoos.
@khalidabuhakmeh@mastodon.socialPro tip for #aspnetcore devs: if Blazor hijacks the importmap in your plain-old server-rendered app due to MapStaticAssets, you can opt out of the tag helper on an element by using “!”.
You can also write your own tag helper to bypass this problem.
@blackknight95857669@social.linux.pizzaHouse Flipper 2 (Multi, XPd on PC) Test out your interior design skills and get even more creative with the revamped toolset in this excellent sequel.
If you follow me you might have noticed I like a good sim game (and if you like em too stay tuned, reviewing a couple more today), and HF2 is absolutely a good sim. Not surprising as the OG was a good first showing for the devs, Frozen District. This time out they've refined the tool set, added in some more story elements, and booste…
@Techmeme@techhub.socialRoblox plans to restrict unrated experiences to devs, automatically remove servers with violative content, and limit some social hangouts to verified 17 users (Matt Kaufman/Roblox Corporate)
https://corp.roblox.com/newsroom/2025/08/extending-r…
@lil5@social.linux.pizzaWhy is #postgresql so anal about backup versions?
Did the devs forget that backups are only helpful if you can restore them?
@theodric@social.linux.pizza‼️BREAKING‼️
Wayland devs now regard copy-paste as an unacceptable vulnerability. Going forward, you will only be able to run one application at a time, and each application will need to implement its own compositor. This is for your safety, no dissent will be tolerated, thank u
@penguin42@mastodon.org.ukMy JS Krups is resisting netbooting. I see it doing a DHCP discover, and I see Kea responding with an offer, but then it just sends another Discover. Hmph. I can get to the serial console and doing boot net from there doesn't help; none of the keyboard shortcuts for network diag etc seem to work (except the one that displays the help for it...). So I took the flash SIM out and now it boots to Net rather than flash by default; alas with the same DHCP behaviour. Time to try isc-dhcp.…
@rigo@mamot.fr#kde kmymoney also started to eat data. If Devs turn something from reliable and safe to unreliable and unsafe, the real question of liability comes into play. How can such a thing end in distribution?
Maybe we need to re-organize open source to have a reliable portfolio of applications, a kind of reliable #kde fr…
@niklaskorz@rheinneckar.social @aardrian@toot.cafeOnce again for the devs in the back…
If an image has a blank alt (`<img alt="">`), then `aria-hidden` is redundant and unnecessary and redundant.
@jake4480@c.im'Shark Dentist' is an upcoming game described by its devs as a 'unique horror roguelike' (more like a horror sim rogueLITE). It's coming to Steam soon-- definitely something I gotta try. 🦈 🦷
Here's the 'reveal trailer' they just posted (warning, some blood, etc): https://www.youtube.com/…
@thesaigoneer@social.linux.pizzaThere is a well known bug with Wayland & SDDM on FreeBSD KDE: Ctrl C by keypress abruptly throws you out of your Wayland session. Two things to add to that:
First: KDE and FreeBSD devs are actively looking for FreeBSD help in this, bcs the regular systemd type of logs are obviously not available here for bug tracing. If you can help, please do!
Second: Found a great solutions in the FreeBSD forums. It's a bit hidden in the threads so for clarity's sake:
I disab…
@khalidabuhakmeh@mastodon.socialI wonder if AI’s effectiveness will speed up the inevitable death of some ecosystems.
If folks want the “best” (and I mean least shit) Agentic AI experience, they will probably gravitate towards more populated communities where the training data can produce a semblance of “working”.
This will likely flat-line some communities since many devs want something that works.
@Techmeme@techhub.socialNvidia debuts new Omniverse SDKs and Cosmos world foundation models for robotics devs, including Cosmos Reason, a 7B-parameter reasoning vision language model (Rebecca Szkutak/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/11/nvid
@gedankenstuecke@scholar.socialIf anyone else who's in the #OpenStreetMap/#opensource cosmos needs a reason to stop using Organic Maps and switch to some free/open alternatives:
In addition to them rolling their own 'data license', it seems like their recent license modifications for code could also be viewed as violating the Apache license/the creation of a non-FOSS license too.
That the devs are unwilling to give a clear answer to those questions speaks volumes imho…
https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/10987
@blackknight95857669@social.linux.pizzaOnce again, the fucking suits ruined what could have been a perfectly fine game, and the devs and players are the ones that got blamed for its "poor performance".
Report: Veilguard's late pivot from live service spelled doom for Dragon Age sequel sales
https://www.…
@almad@fosstodon.org @aardrian@toot.cafeI’m not even a screen reader user, and I wrote a blog post about folks (managers, marketers, devs, etc) lazily blaming screen readers. Though I suspect folks bitched to me because I’m not blind so of course I would agree.
https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/114988592594107119
@Techmeme@techhub.socialSnap aims to ship lightweight, consumer AR glasses called Specs in 2026, lighter than its Spectacles 5 glasses for devs, but with many of the same capabilities (Maxwell Zeff/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/10/snap-plans-to-s…
@bmariusz@techhub.socialDay 16
Just published a deep dive into building a secure login page with Next.js, NestJS, JWT, and PostgreSQL.
- Email verification
- Role-based access control
- Subscription enforcement
- Token decoding in frontend
- SQL-level inserts for system roles
Includes full code snippets and explanation of the entire flow.
Perfect if you're working on full-stack apps with JavaScript, TypeScript, and SQL.
@Techmeme@techhub.socialApple unveils Xcode 26, which will integrate ChatGPT for coding, doc generation, and more, and says devs can use API keys to add AI models from other providers (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/09/apple-brings-chatgpt-and-o…
@thomastraynor@social.linux.pizzaNever too many walkthroughs for a release. It may be a bit of overkill, but it works for us...
1. Pre-release the day before to go over the schedule of activities and assignments.
2. Schedule release and related backups.
3. Day of release and after schedule created for run another walkthrough to verify that the backups are where they need to be, checkpoints are there, start of the process is on manual hold.
4. Schedule an open teams call for the leads, devs and supp…
@Techmeme@techhub.socialCoinbase adds Embedded Wallets to its mobile SDK, allowing devs to integrate wallets into their apps with minimal code, with support for on-ramps and swaps (Vishal Chawla/The Block)
https://www.theblock.co/post/365559/coinbase-launches-embedded-wallets-devel…
