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Smartfunc: Turn Docstrings into LLM-Functions

(github.com)
70 points alexmolas | 1 comments | 08 Apr 25 09:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.253s | source
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lukev ◴[10 Apr 25 15:36 UTC] No.43644995[source]▶
This is the way LLM-enhanced coding should (and I believe will) go.

Treating the LLM like a compiler is a much more scalable, extensible and composable mental model than treating it like a junior dev.

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simonw ◴[10 Apr 25 15:38 UTC] No.43645013[source]▶
smartfunc doesn't really treat the LLM as a compiler - it's not generating Python code to fill out the function, it's converting that function into one that calls the LLM every time you call the function passing in its docstring as a prompt.

A version that DID work like a compiler would be super interesting - it could replace the function body with generated Python code on your first call and then reuse that in the future, maybe even caching state on disk rather than in-memory.

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1. photonthug ◴[10 Apr 25 18:14 UTC] No.43646624[source]▶
Treating it as a compiler is obviously the way right? Setting aside overhead if you’re using local models.. Either the code gen is not deterministic in which case you risk random breakage or it is deterministic and you decided to delete it anyway and punt on ever changing / optimizing it except for in natural language? Why would anyone prefer either case? Code folding works fine if you just don’t want to look at it ever.

I can see this eventually going in the direction of "bidirectional synchronization" of NL representation and code representation (similar to how jupytext allows you work with notebooks in browser or markdown in editor). But a single representation that's completely NL and deliberately throwing away a code representation sounds like it would be the opposite of productivity..