Hi all,
I do code on my own without AI, but in all honesty, I’m not that great (I’m a junior dev at my job, and don’t have a lot of experience). I always use AI to explain things to me, not code for me. I made that my mission, so I don’t let it think for me because I want to learn. It explains things very well and I’ve been learning a great deal.
Today, I decided to test it out. I asked it to build an app for me that works on KDE Plasma, my favorite DE.
I use some appimages for some apps. I tried appimagelauncher and gear lever and had some issues with them.
I want to integrate appimages into my system. So, I did a small workaround where I created a small script in ~/.local/bin that has one line after the shebang exec /<path to app image>/<appimage>. Then created a .desktop file that points to that script. I made one for Suyu and VIA and they both worked. I wanted to do it for more apps, but it got repetitive, so I gave AI some requirements and told it to add what’s necessary if needed.
I’ve never programmed in Python, and it chose Python. lol. Ok, let’s go with it. It made a pretty nice app. The app does 5 things:
- Creates that little script I mentioned earlier
- Creates the .desktop file for that app and makes it point to the correct things (script, icon, startupWMClass(this is so the app will still launch after pinning it to the panel)…etc)
- Copies the appimage into a “appimages” folder in the home directory
- Adds an icon of your choosing to the app
- It makes everything executable
I had it package the app into an appimage (that’s something I’ve never done before and it was pretty freaking cool to learn) and I’m planning on making an .rpm and a .deb packages of it, too.
The honest part. I feel a tiny bit of shame deep inside. But then I look at it and I see an app that could help some people. Who cares how I created it? I have always wanted to contribute something to the Linux world, and this feels like it.
What I’m asking for: your honest opinion. Should I feel that little shame? Should I put it up on GitHub? It would of course be GPL licensed. Maybe some folks want to make it better or contribute or fork it. I love open source and I feel like this could be useful to some.
So, hit me.
Thank you
You learn so much more doing it yourself instead of having AI write code for you. When I first learned how to admin an Apache server I had 0 understanding how it worked, but with some effort I’m now confident enough to do a simple setup on my own. I did follow along with tutorials and examples configs, but I made sure I knew what each part did at least on a high level. The reason I’m confident in this is that I know how to read the docs and how to troubleshoot issues when they happen.
When you let AI do all the work you don’t learn the inner workings of a system and are only hurting yourself. If you want to use AI use it for writing some boiler plate you’ve already written hundreds of times or taking simple functions and converting them to another language. I use AI for basic and repetitive tasks, which is something it’s great at. I don’t use it for making large design decisions since that will (not “if”, but “will”) bite me in the ass later on when something breaks. Examples of good uses of AI (in my opinion): generating a list of US states in JavaScript, take a function that converts a strijg to a date object and try to translate it to another language, use it as a tool to bounce some high level ideas off of when you’re at a development block.
if ur gonna use ai like this make sure you understand very well the code its giving you
It was a one time test. One off. Never happened before and won’t happen again. I just wanted to test it, and the test came out with a nice app and I thought maybe I should share it. I could’ve just not said anything and put it on GitHub and no one would’ve have known. I am not sure how to say it better and make it make more sense. Is my English really that bad that people aren’t getting what I’m saying? lol
That is a bunch of unnecessary noise just because an AI managed to code a working python code for you. Like that’d make your command “cursed” or some sort.
Not sure what you mean
He means nobody here fucking cares what the LLM made for you, and it’s definitely not worth sharing.
You’re getting downvoted by the people who have the expertise you claim to want. So pay attention and reflect on what’s being said to you. Otherwise what was the point of posting at all?
Damn, why are people so salty. I didn’t know I murdered someone posting. Holy shit! This is why people stay away from Linux. It’s elitism and thinking you all are better than everyone else. It was an honest question to have a conversation. Nevermind.
IMO if it works for you then there’s nothing wrong with using AI this way. I wouldn’t recommend it myself but you do you. No need to feel guilty.
Well the one thing that kinda wrong about it is the immense energy usage of most LLMs. But you aren’t putting an artist out of a job or anything like that.
Appreciate your input. I just wanted to test it out with code this time. I generally have it explain code concepts for me instead of hunting online, and it actually does explain things very well.
(I’m a junior dev at my job, and don’t have a lot of experience).
You’re robbing yourself of gaining legitimate experience.
I always use AI to explain things to me, not code for me.
Ok.
I made that my mission, so I don’t let it think for me because I want to learn.
Alright.
I asked it to build an app for me that works on KDE Plasma, my favorite DE.
Seems like the exact opposite of just having it explain concepts to you, and not letting it think for you, and not letting it write code for you.
I’ve never programmed in Python, and it chose Python. lol. Ok, let’s go with it.
Ok, so you aren’t actually learning any python, and it is just generating python code for you, which you made no attempt to change such that it would just be explaining concepts to you preferably in a language you do know. Sounds a lot like you aren’t doing a lot of the thinking in this process, or writing the code.
Creates that little script I mentioned earlier
Creates the .desktop file for that app and makes it point to the correct things (script, icon, startupWMClass(this is so the app will still launch after pinning it to the panel)…etc)
Copies the appimage into a “appimages” folder in the home directory
Adds an icon of your choosing to the app
It makes everything executable
Instead of asking AI to make this in a language you don’t know, you’d probably be a lot better off learning some BASH and discovering that this is likely doable in a one-liner which you can associate to an alias.
I had it package the app into an appimage
So it is thinking for you, writing the code for you, and packaging it for you.
The honest part. I feel a tiny bit of shame deep inside
You should.
Who cares how I created it?
Programmers, artists, your boss, your future self when something breaks in prod and you realize that you have robbed yourself of so much experience by outsourcing any opportunity to obtain skill, knowledge, and wisdom that you have no idea what the fuck to do or why the problem is happening, and then someone sues you over it because it turns out in the mess of AI code there are out of scope variables from a thread the AI found on stack overflow circa 2008 which lead to a disaster.
If you want honest opinions from people, then this is mine. That little shame you feel is probably larger than you think.
It was a one time test. I thought I have expanded on that specifically. English is my second language, so I could have explained it wrong, or not enough I guess. Appreciate the input regardless :)
