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0 pointsVegenoid5mo ago0 comments

Without understanding the level of detail required, which we do not yet know, we cannot say.

When I think of English specifications that (generally) aim to be very precise, I think of laws. Laws do not read like plain, common language, because plain common language is bad at being specific. Interpreting and creating laws requires an education on par with that required of an engineer, often greater.

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Muromec5mo ago· 3 in thread

Laws being unreadable is largely an Enlish-language problem zo. I have no problem reading them in my native language. Not requiring massive context size of case law makes things easier still. Big part of being a lawyer is having the same context with all the other lawyers and knowing what was already decided and what possible new interpretation is likely to be accepted by everyone else.

VegenoidOP5mo ago

> Big part of being a lawyer is having the same context with all the other lawyers and knowing what was already decided and what possible new interpretation is likely to be accepted by everyone else.

And to create software specifications with language, the same thing will need to happen. You’ll need shared terminology and context that the LLM will correctly and consistently interpret, and that other engineers will understand. This means that very specific meanings become attached to certain words and phrases. Without this, you aren’t making precise specifications. To create and interpret these specifications will require learning the language of the specs. It may well still be easier than code - but then it would also be less precise.

Muromec5mo ago

>And to create software specifications with language, the same thing will need to happen. You’ll need shared terminology and context that the LLM will correctly and consistently interpret, and that other engineers will understand.

That sounds awfully similar to... software development.

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jimbokun5mo ago

And this could end up looking more like mathematics notation than English. For the same reason mathematicians opt to use specialized notation to communicate with greater precision than natural language.

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