sbcl can compile to a single executable (the image is embedded in the binary). From a deployment standpoint, the only real issue is if you depend on a dynamically linked C library like OpenSSL.

I used to do this to build command line utilities in SBCL, with millisecond initialization times. Good technique, and compress the image so executables are fairly small.

random note: it's possible to incorporate C libs at compile time, e.g.:

https://github.com/sionescu/sbcl-goodies

Yeah, I’ve done that in a slightly hacky way (manually run the various stages of the sbcl build and statically link c libs before building the actual image).

AI can generate a fairly satisfactory SVG for a favicon now (programmer art quality at least).

In a world with nix and where nearly every system has zsh, restricting yourself to the POSIX version of these tools is masochistic.

The two arg cd is pretty useful (and, zsh implements it too because cd is a shell feature): if you have parallel directory structure (e.g. the way rails does tests) you can switch from app/b/c/d to spec/b/c/f by doing `cd app spec`

I just use while’s default variable name, $REPLY most of the time. But `while` is my preferred tool for the xargs problem in most cases.

My experience mostly matches this: I think of a piece of development work having three phases:

1. Prototype 2. Initial production implementation 3. Hardening

My experience with LLMs is that they solve “writer’s block” problems in the prototyping phase at the expense of making phases 2+3 slower because the system is less in your head. They also have a mixed effect on ongoing maintenance: small tasks are easier but you lose some of the feel of the system.

I completely agree with all of these observations.

And indeed for me, the biggest productivity boost has nothing to do with my "typing speed" or any such nonsense, it's that it can help with writer's block and other kinds of unhelpful inertia.

It kind of reminds me of ADHD medication: it alleviates the "inability to direct attention at one thing" problem, but actually exacerbates the "time blindness" and "hyperfocus" problems.

I think probably a lot of complex tools have these characteristics: useful in some ways, liable to backfire in others, and ultimately context-sensitive (and maybe somewhat unpredictable) in their helpfulness.

Hopefully as LLMs are more widely experimented with by developers, the conversation can continue to move away from thinking about the effects of LLM use in terms of some uniform/fungible "productivity" and towards understanding where it hurts and where it helps, how to tell when it's time to put it away, what kinds of codebases are really hurt by that kind of detached engagement, and what kinds of projects leverage that sort of rapid prototyping the most effectively.

Plausible text generation is an almost magical trick, whether it's generating human language or computer code. But it turns out it's not a silver bullet, no matter how impressive the trick is. It's more interesting than a silver bullet, in fact: it's a system of surprising tradeoffs, even for different phases of the same overall task.

Usually you'll iterate several times on #1, which is where LLMs are really helpful. They let you get working code from stage #1 quite quickly, so you can check the output and behavior, and then oftentimes you'll find that you framed the problem incorrectly in the first place. Then you can fix your problem definition, have the LLM rewrite the code, try it again, and so on, until you get the results you want.

#1 -> #2 is a gap, but it also helps if you ask the LLM to explain its thinking and generate a human-readable design-doc of the approach it took and code organization it used. Then you read the design doc to gain the context, and pick up with #2.

You can hold command and drag the icons under the notch to make the invisible ones eventually show

This might be programmer-brain, but I find sqlite is pretty nice for things people would use a spreadsheet for. It’s a little bit higher friction, but when I started designing a Improv-like terminal spreadsheet a while ago, I eventually realized I was just reinventing databases.

The Cayenne would not be safer going 35 instead of 40 "regardless of all other variables": it's statistically safer to go closer to the flow of traffic because you're then "at rest" with respect to other drivers (assuming a controlled access road without pedestrian traffic). If the speed limit is 55 and the flow of traffic is 70–80 (as is the case with the Beltway around DC, despite automated enforcement), then going 55 is more dangerous than "speeding". The issue with 100% enforcement is every law assumes certain circumstances or variables and the real world is infinitely more complex than any set of variables that can reasonably be foreseen by law (and laws that attempt to foresee as many variables as possible are more complicated and, consequently, harder for normal people to apply, which is another reason for latitude in enforcement).

safer for whom? Remember cars are not the only ones participating in traffic.

“assuming a controlled access road without pedestrian traffic”

such roads barely need speed limits. In some places they do not have them

The problem with your DC beltway example wouldn’t be automated enforcement then, but with the speed limit itself.

A road without pedestrians and intersections in it should have a speed limit that reflects the reality of its use (70-80)

Yeah, mine to which I find really annoying

Yeah I had to ask it to stop doing that as well && chaining commands that it could split. I got tired of having to manually give permissions all the time (or leaving it to churn, only to come back after a while to see it had asked for permissions very early into the task)