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0 pointsmeasurablefunc2mo ago0 comments

I don't know, that's why I asked b/c I always see a lot of empty platitudes when it comes to LLM praise so I'm curious to see if people can actually back up their claims.

I haven't done any 3D modeling so I'll take your word for it but I can tell you that I am working on a very simple interpreter & bytecode compiler for a subset of Erlang & I have yet to see anything novel or even useful from any of the coding assistants. One might naively think that there is enough literature on interpreters & compilers for coding agents to pretty much accomplish the task in one go but that's not what happens in practice.

0 comments

brookst2mo ago

It’s taken me a while to get good at using them.

My advice: ask for more than what you think it can do. #1 mistake is failing to give enough context about goals, constraints, priorities.

Don’t ask “complete this one small task”, ask “hey I’m working on this big project, docs are here, source is there, I’m not sure how to do that, come up with a plan”

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

The specification is linked in another comment in this thread & you can decide whether it is ambitious enough or not but what I can tell you is that none of the existing coding agents can complete the task even w/ all the details. If you do try it you will eventually get something that will mostly work on simple tests but fail miserably on slightly more complicated test cases.

pushedx2mo ago

Which agents are you using, and are you using them in an agent mode (Codex, Claude Code etc.)?

The difference in quality of output between Claude Sonnet and Claude Opus is around an order of magnitude.

The results that you can get from agent mode vs using a chat bot are around two orders of magnitude.

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

The workflow is not the issue. You are welcome to try the same challenge yourself if you want. Extra test cases (https://drive.proton.me/urls/6Z6557R2WG#n83c6DP6mDfc) & specification (https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/5581b499-a471-4d58-8e05-1...). I know enough about compilers, bytecode VMs, parsers, & interpreters to know that this is well within the capabilities of any reasonably good software engineer but the implementation from Gemini 3.1 Pro (high & low) & Claude Opus 4.6 (thinking) have been less than impressive.

pushedx2mo ago

sorry, needed to edit this comment to ask the same question as the sibling:

have you run these models in an agent mode that allows for executing the tests, the agent views the output, and iterates on its own for a while? up to an hour or so?

you will get vastly different output if you ask the agent to write 200 of its own test cases, and then have it iterate from there

Kim_Bruning2mo ago

Possibly a dumb question: but are you running this in claude code, or an ide, or basically what are you using to allow for iteration?

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

I'm using Google's antigravity IDE. I initially had it configured to run allowed commands (cargo add|build|check|run, testing shell scripts, performance profiling shell scripts, etc.) so that it would iterate & fix bugs w/ as little intervention from me as possible but all it did was burn through the daily allotted tokens so I switched to more "manual" guidance & made a lot more progress w/o burning through the daily limits.

What I've learned from this experiment is that the hype does not actually live up to the reality. Maybe the next iteration will manage the task better than the current one but it's obvious that basic compiler & bytecode virtual machine design in a language like Rust is still beyond the capabilities of the current coding agents & whoever thinks I'm wrong is welcome to implement the linked specification to see how far they can get by just "vibing".

1 more reply

kmaitreys2mo ago

Can you clarify a bit more about the this two orders of magnitude? In what context? Sure, they have "agency" and can do more than outputting text, but I would like see a proper example of this claim.

joquarky2mo ago

Most humans can't force themselves to come up with something novel immediately upon demand.

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

Completely unrelated to the topic or any of the points I was making so did you get confused & respond to the wrong thread?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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brookst2mo ago

It’s taken me a while to get good at using them.

My advice: ask for more than what you think it can do. #1 mistake is failing to give enough context about goals, constraints, priorities.

Don’t ask “complete this one small task”, ask “hey I’m working on this big project, docs are here, source is there, I’m not sure how to do that, come up with a plan”

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

pushedx2mo ago

Which agents are you using, and are you using them in an agent mode (Codex, Claude Code etc.)?

The difference in quality of output between Claude Sonnet and Claude Opus is around an order of magnitude.

The results that you can get from agent mode vs using a chat bot are around two orders of magnitude.

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

pushedx2mo ago

sorry, needed to edit this comment to ask the same question as the sibling:

have you run these models in an agent mode that allows for executing the tests, the agent views the output, and iterates on its own for a while? up to an hour or so?

you will get vastly different output if you ask the agent to write 200 of its own test cases, and then have it iterate from there

Kim_Bruning2mo ago

Possibly a dumb question: but are you running this in claude code, or an ide, or basically what are you using to allow for iteration?

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

1 more reply

kmaitreys2mo ago

Can you clarify a bit more about the this two orders of magnitude? In what context? Sure, they have "agency" and can do more than outputting text, but I would like see a proper example of this claim.

joquarky2mo ago

Most humans can't force themselves to come up with something novel immediately upon demand.

measurablefuncOP2mo ago

Completely unrelated to the topic or any of the points I was making so did you get confused & respond to the wrong thread?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse