Bret
@brethatin.bsky.social
Reposted by Bret
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work
In all of the debates about the value of AI-assistance in software development there’s one depressing anecdote that I keep on seeing: the junior engineer, empowered by some class of …
simonwillison.net
December 18, 2025 at 2:57 PM
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
I wish to have the same patience as the ocaml maintainer here. I think I would have lost my shit immediately.
One of the many joys of using AI for programming is the creation of huge PRs on complex topics that the authors barely understand, but still suggest "because they work". Here's a great example from #OCaml github.com/ocaml/ocaml/...
Kudos to OCaml's maintainers for handling this so gracefully.
Kudos to OCaml's maintainers for handling this so gracefully.
DWARF support for macOS and Linux by joelreymont · Pull Request #14369 · ocaml/ocaml
DWARF v5 Debugging Support for OCaml Native Compiler
This PR adds DWARF v5 debug information to the OCaml native compiler, allowing proper source-level debugging in GDB and LLDB.
What's Impleme...
github.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:21 AM
I wish to have the same patience as the ocaml maintainer here. I think I would have lost my shit immediately.
Reposted by Bret
Here's a silly little Haskell chestnut! To start, what's the type of `head [map, map]`?
It's `(a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]`, same as regular `map`.
Now, what's the type of `head [map, filter]`? Answer in the reply skeet!
It's `(a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]`, same as regular `map`.
Now, what's the type of `head [map, filter]`? Answer in the reply skeet!
May 29, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Here's a silly little Haskell chestnut! To start, what's the type of `head [map, map]`?
It's `(a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]`, same as regular `map`.
Now, what's the type of `head [map, filter]`? Answer in the reply skeet!
It's `(a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]`, same as regular `map`.
Now, what's the type of `head [map, filter]`? Answer in the reply skeet!
And using a LLM to explain bits and pieces that are a bit too dense for me to understand.
There is such a good alpha in using a debugger. I have been reading Tinygrad and it has helped my understanding alot when I can jump to a point and see the inputs and outputs. Stack info help you to infer the code flow, watchers reinforces the state machine that you have inside your brain.
May 30, 2025 at 6:32 AM
And using a LLM to explain bits and pieces that are a bit too dense for me to understand.
There is such a good alpha in using a debugger. I have been reading Tinygrad and it has helped my understanding alot when I can jump to a point and see the inputs and outputs. Stack info help you to infer the code flow, watchers reinforces the state machine that you have inside your brain.
May 30, 2025 at 6:29 AM
There is such a good alpha in using a debugger. I have been reading Tinygrad and it has helped my understanding alot when I can jump to a point and see the inputs and outputs. Stack info help you to infer the code flow, watchers reinforces the state machine that you have inside your brain.
LLVM is the greatest human monument ever built..and simultaneously might be least written about.
May 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
LLVM is the greatest human monument ever built..and simultaneously might be least written about.
I have started a blog. I intend to use the blog to publish a series of articles on <insert-my-current-arcs>. My first article is on build reproducibility: my woes building a small kernel.
March 23, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I have started a blog. I intend to use the blog to publish a series of articles on <insert-my-current-arcs>. My first article is on build reproducibility: my woes building a small kernel.