Post by @chunes@lemmy.world

2026-09-15 04:53 UTC

It’s funny watching this type of bellyaching play out like a loop over history. People went through this EXACT same bellyaching when compilers first started showing up. The machine coders considered themselves superior and their skills indispensable. Now those people are extinct and modern people consider their compiler skills to be elite, not realizing they’re using the baby mode that people railed against in the past.

Replies (2)

@5318008@lemmy.ml 2026-09-15 06:16

Did anyone do studies on the homework and exam scores of people using compilers vs people not using compilers? Did anyone establish that people who used compilers are measurably dumber than the people who didn’t? No? Well then obviously it’s not the same situation, now is it?

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@MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2026-09-15 07:23

Understanding the layers of abstraction down to the metal is still a useful way of developing an instinct for how compilers, interpreters, languages, and algorithms etc. work and what is possible. If you ever truly need to optimize something you’ll end up descending those layers, it’s why C has inline assembly and with RAMageddon upon us optimization may well return to being a valued skill. Which is to say you don’t need to know what you don’t need to know, until you do, and you’ll be better anyway if you can.

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