[GNC] Sharing Some Changes With the GnuCash Community

[Derek Atkins]

Adrien,

On Wed, May 27, 2026 9:32 am, John Ralls wrote:
>
>
>> On May 26, 2026, at 21:41, Adrien Monteleone
>> <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
>>
>> I simply do not see how or why probabilistic word generators should be
>> used for anything but novelty kicks and entertainment
>
> There’s enough code and commentary about the code on the web that the
> probability of generating what the user is asking for very high, as long
> as the user is very specific about what they want, doesn’t ask for too
> much at once, and carefully reviews and corrects the results. An LLM can
> “type” a million or more times faster than a human can, so once the user
> gets adept at writing good prompts the process is is much faster than
> writing the code oneself. I’ve heard/read many senior devs describe it as
> programming rocket fuel.

There is a wide gap between "vibe coding" and using AI to help speed up
development.  The former is a non-programmer going to an AI and saying
"write me an app that does X" and lets the AI make all the technical
decisions.  In this scenario the driver has no clue what the AI is
producing (and doesn't specifically care).  So yes, mistakes can (and
will!) be made in the process.  I agree, this is dangerous.

The second scenario is very different.  It's when a seasoned coder tells
an AI something like "build me a DAO class for a new table, foo, that
contains the following fields:  id (uuid), name (text), ....".  (NB: this
prompt itself already has too little information but I don't feel like
typing it out).  In this case the AI can absolutely create the code in
seconds, whereas a human would take a day or two to type it!  It's an
accelerator.

I've spent most of the last year coding with the help of an AI.  It's
changed how I work; instead of spending my time writing code I spend most
of my time either writing specs/prompts and/or reviewing the code/changes
that the AI generated.  I would NEVER EVER blindly accept the code output
without reviewing it.  I spend much of my time in "git diff".

Having said that, I've seen the evolution of the tools over the past
year...  I think in another 3-5 the tools might be to a place where a less
seasoned developer could drive without fear of coding mistakes.  Or at
least less fear thereof.

If you're still 100% writing code by hand, these days, you are defintely
going to be considered "slow" -- regardless of how fast you can type!

Just my $0.02.

> Regards,
> John Ralls

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant