←back to thread

We put a coding agent in a while loop

(github.com)
425 points sfarshid | 1 comments | 24 Aug 25 16:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
VincentEvans ◴[24 Aug 25 16:36 UTC] No.45005596[source]▶
There will be a a new kind of job for software engineers, sort of like a cross between working with legacy code and toxic site cleanup.

Like back in the day being brought in to “just fix” a amalgam of FoxPro-, Excel-, and Access-based ERP that “mostly works” and only “occasionally corrupts all our data” that ambitious sales people put together over last 5 years.

But worse - because “ambitious sales people” will no longer be constrained by sandboxes of Excel or Access - they will ship multi-cloud edge-deployed kubernetes micro-services wired with Kafka, and it will be harder to find someone to talk to understand what they were trying to do at the time.

replies(16): >>45005632 #>>45005830 #>>45009697 #>>45009999 #>>45010075 #>>45010738 #>>45010794 #>>45011192 #>>45011626 #>>45011943 #>>45012386 #>>45013129 #>>45014577 #>>45014613 #>>45014836 #>>45015644 #
jiggawatts ◴[25 Aug 25 04:01 UTC] No.45010075[source]▶
> There will be a a new kind of job for software engineers

New? New!?

This is my job now!

I call it software archeology — digging through Windows Server 2012 R2 IIS configuration files with a “last modified date” about a decade ago serving money-handling web apps to the public.

replies(1): >>45010160 #
mjomaa ◴[25 Aug 25 04:18 UTC] No.45010160[source]▶
WebForms?
replies(1): >>45010293 #
1. jiggawatts ◴[25 Aug 25 04:45 UTC] No.45010293[source]▶
Yes, and classic ASP, WCF, ASP.NET 2.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, etc…

It’s “fun” in the sense of piecing together history from subtle clues such as file owners, files on desktops of other admins’ profiles, etc…

I feel like this is what it must be like to open a pharaoh’s tomb. You get to step into someone else’s life from long ago, walk in their shoes for a bit, see the world through their eyes.

“What horrors did you witness brother sysadmin that made you abandon this place with uneaten takeaway lunch still on your desk next to the desiccated powder that once was a half drunk Red Bull?”