2 posts tagged with "Opinion"

Something that's always been true about software is that every project has different needs.

A lot of debate about how we should be engineering suffers from the fundamentally flawed idea that we can write one set of rules and practices that perfectly apply to all software projects:

"If you don't have strong test coverage, your project will suffer" vs.
"Tests are a waste of time and have only caused my teams more pain"

Lately: "If you don't review your agent's code yourself, your your project will rot" vs.
"Agents are so good at writing and reviewing code now, you shouldn't waste time on it"

The quality of agent-generated code has risen and likely will continue to rise, which is not a surprise. With this, the review debate is getting louder and more contentious.

To me, this is still a question of code criticality, and the idea that the importance of quality code review depends on the project isn't really a new one, so once again, we just have an old problem in a new form.

1956: An MIT laboratory develops a new version of the Whirlwind I for the U.S. Navy, the first computer with a built-in typewriter keyboard for direct input operation, the Friden Flexowriter, making punch card procedures obsolete.

1978: The VT100 is released, the first terminal with a video display to support the ANSI codes used today. There are control codes for the keyboard's lights, reminding me of the the RGBs on my mechanical keyboard that have been a great way to impress women.

1989: The bash terminal shell is released under one of the first open source licenses, combining many of the best features of existing shells that could control the Unix operating system. Two years later, Linus Torvalds ports it to Linux.

2005: Linus Torvalds releases git, an improved system of version control and collaboration for developing a directory of files, though Linus's first commit to its own source code calls it "the information manager from hell."

2011: The idea of a "coding bootcamp" is first seen. The current barrier of entry for code self-education is lower than most people realize. Years later, I eventually attend one of these bootcamps, where I am first taught to use bash and git in macOS's terminal emulator.

2025: Claude Code is released, including the fully terminal-based AI coding interface used popularly by developers of all experience levels. A year later, I attend a vibe coding hype presentation of Claude targeting a non-technical audience that inevitably ends up emphasizing having some familiarity with bash and git.