Vibe Code is legacy code

#programming #vibe-coding #tech
Author: Steve Krouse
Source: https://blog.val.town/vibe-code

Summary

Vibe Code is legacy code because both are hard to understand. For this reason, AI will not completely eliminate the field of software development (or more specifically, traditional programming) because expertise is still needed when building things that actually matter.

Takeaways

• Vibe coding is not paying attention to the code at all; just fully giving in to the vibes. However, we have to also note that Not all AI-assisted programming is vibe coding
• Programming is fundamentally theory building, i.e. proving and disproving something, as is with the scientific method and not just producing lines of code.
  • This makes measurement of lines of code produced as a metric of success/productivity essentially useless, as removing lines of code, refactoring and replacing it essentially makes the code better.
  • longer code != better code
• Vibe Code is legacy code because both are:
  • hard to understand, or;
  • the developer does not want to bother understanding the code base
  • incurring tech debt due to its difficulty to be understood
• However, "It's only legacy code if you have to maintain it!"
• Vibing with the code is inversely proportional to understanding the code (i.e., the more you understand the code base, the less you are vibe-coding it)
  • It's inefficient to vibe-code with a project that has the potential to incur lots of technical debt (i.e. a large project that needs to be maintained)
  • the author equates this to giving credit card to a child, who has no understanding of credit card debt