First screen, captured 4 days ago.

The compiler was supposed to end programming too

What HN thinks

Every generation gets told programming is over; this one argues about whether the robot is a compiler or a ghostwriter.

LLMs are not like compilers
Compilers deterministically and precisely translate semantics, while LLMs guess from vague natural language, so the analogy breaks down.
Precise specs are just code
Removing ambiguity from prompts ends up recreating programming; compilers ended hand-coding, not programming, and LLMs will likely shift the work similarly.
Jobs will shrink anyway
Rapid model improvement could displace many developers and white-collar workers, even if not fully, causing economic shock.

Consensus: No consensus on AI's impact, though most agree historical compilers eliminated hand-translating to machine code rather than programming itself, and that current models still need close supervision.

Recommended in the comments

Boomi ↗ (service): Suggested as a modern low-code/agentic successor to Visual Basic-style development.
Workato (service): Cited as an enterprise low-code tool usable with agentic workflows.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 3 days ago.

Points: 116
Comments: 201
Best rank: #3
Posted: 2026-10-21 by theanonymousone
Category: Ai ml

ai-coding-agents software-careers future-of-work metr developer-productivity fortran programming-history

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