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Wouldn't that be strictly worse than specifying the functionality in code? The reason we've invented programming languages is because natural language is ambiguous and imprecise.

Consider the instructions "take a list, add the number three and five, return the list"

This compiles to both

  f(list):
    3+5;
    return list;
and

  f(list):
    list.add(3&5);
    return list;
and

  f(list):
    list.add(3);
    list.add(5);
    return list;
Decoding this type of vague descriptions is something human programmers struggle with, often resulting in a discussion with whoever wrote the requirements about just what the requirements say (sometimes they don't know and it needs to be worked out).


> This compiles to both

[three code segments]

Did you intentionally do an off-by-one error?


Not really, but it furthers my point about natural language being imprecise. Even the grammatical rules are ambiguous and frequently broken.

It's as they say: Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.


I agree with you, and in fact I think that initial code generation like CoPilot is strictly worse as well. But I'm discussing something orthogonal to code quality here.




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