Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

I'm going to take a contrarian view and say it's actually a good UI, but it's all about how you approach it.

I just finished a small project where I used o3-mini and o3-mini-high to generate most of the code. I averaged around 200 lines of code an hour, including the business logic and unit tests. Total was around 2200 lines. So, not a big project, but not a throw away script. The code was perfectly fine for what we needed. This is the third time I've done this, and each time I get faster and better at it.

1. I find a "pair programming" mentality is key. I focus on the high-level code, and let the model focus on the lower level code. I code review all the code, and provide feedback. Blindly accepting the code is a terrible approach.

2. Generating unit tests is critical. After I like the gist of some code, I ask for some smoke tests. Again, peer review the code and adjust as needed.

3. Be liberal with starting a new chat: the models can get easily confused with longer context windows. If you start to see things go sideways, start over.

4. Give it code examples. Don't prompt with English only.

FWIW, o3-mini was the best model I've seen so far; Sonnet 3.5 New is a close second.

> 1. I find a "pair programming" mentality is key. I focus on the high-level code, and let the model focus on the lower level code. I code review all the code, and provide feedback. Blindly accepting the code is a terrible approach.

This is what I've found to be key. If I start a new feature, I will work with the LLM to do the following:

- Create problem and solution statement

- Create requirements and user stories

- Create architecture

- Create skeleton code. This is critical since it lets me understand what it wants to do.

- Generate a summary of the skeleton code

Once I have done the above, I will have the LLM generate a reusable prompt that I can use to start LLM conversations with. Below is an example of how I turn everything into a reusable prompt.

https://beta.gitsense.com/?chat=b96ce9e0-da19-45e8-bfec-a3ec...

As I make changes like add new files, I will need to generate a new prompt but it is worth the effort. And you can see it in action here.

https://beta.gitsense.com/?chat=b8c4b221-55e5-4ed6-860e-12f0...

The first message is the reusable prompt message. With the first message in place, I can describe the problem or requirements and ask the LLM what files it will need to better understand how to implement things.

What I am currently doing highlights how I think LLM is a game changer. VCs are going for moonshots instead of home runs. The ability to gather requirements and talk through a solution before even coding is how I think LLMs will revolutionize things. It is great that it can produce usable code, but what I've found it to be invaluable is it helps you organize your thoughts.

In the last link, I am having a conversation with both DeepSeek v3 and Sonnet 3.5 and the LLMs legitimately saved me hours in work, without even writing a single line of code. In the past, I would have just implemented the feature and been done with it, and then I would have to fix something if I didn't think of an edge case. With LLMs, it literally takes minutes to develop a plan that is extremely well documented that can be shared with others.

This ability to generate design documents is how I think LLMs will ultimately be used. The bonus is producing code, but the reality is that documentation (which can be tedious and frustrating) is a requirement for software development. In my opinion, this is where LLMs will forever change things.