AI Applications
AI Coding Assistants: Hype vs. Reality - A Developer's Honest Review
Aditi
Oct 10, 2024
The tech world is buzzing about AI coding assistants. Social media is full of individuals showing off apps they've built in record time, all without writing a single line of code. Well, I decided to find out for myself.
The Programming Phenomenon
Before we dive into my experience, let's talk about what everyone's saying. My Twitter feed has been flooded with success stories:
From curious beginners to seasoned developers , the entire coding community is riding the wave of AI-powered productivity, crafting sophisticated applications in record time.
One post that caught my eye was from a developer
The magic is that entire groups of people are feeling the magic of programming a computer for the first time.
It's a pretty big claim - could these tools really be making coding accessible to everyone? With all the positivity around , one would think these AI coding assistants are revolutionary.
Is it really as game-changing as people say? Let's find out.
My Real-World Test with Replit
Given the current interest in AI coding tools, I decided to give Replit a try. I picked it because it claimed to handle everything from planning to deployment. Here's how it went:
The Good Stuff
Replit surprised me in a few ways. It was great at planning - it came up with a solid project outline and even suggested some features I hadn't thought of. Setting up the coding environment was quick, and it created a database without me having to do much.
The coolest part? I didn't write any code myself. I just kept describing what I wanted, and Replit generated the code. It even did some basic testing and created sample data. When it came time to launch the app, it was just a matter of clicking a button.
Planning and approval
Code Generation
The Not-So-Great Parts
But it wasn't all smooth sailing. For starters, I couldn't even try Replit without paying first, which was a bit annoying. I wanted to use JavaScript, but found out it only supported Python for my project
While I didn't have to code, I'm not sure someone with zero coding experience could use this effectively. It's still pretty technical. Sometimes Replit would mess up and delete parts of the code it had written, which was frustrating.
When we hit problems, Replit could fix the small stuff, but for bigger issues, I had to step in and debug things myself. After two sessions of about an hour each, I still couldn't get everything working perfectly.
Code Debugging
Subscription Charges
The Real Power of AI Coding Tools
So, what are these tools actually good for? From my experience:
They're great for quick prototypes. If you need to test an idea fast, they can be super helpful.
An AI coding assistant can rapidly generate a basic to-do list application with features like adding tasks, marking them as complete, and displaying the list.
2. The planning features are solid. They can help you think through your project more thoroughly.
3. For simple apps or scripts, they can save you a bunch of time.
While powerful, they're not a substitute for coding knowledge. You'll still need some programming skills to get the most out of them.
Moving Forward: How to Use AI Coding Tools
If you're thinking about giving these tools a shot, here's my advice:
Start small. Don't try to build anything too complex right off the bat.
Be prepared for a learning curve. Even though it's "no-code," you'll still need to learn how to work with the AI.
Use them for brainstorming and prototyping. They're great for getting ideas off the ground quickly.
Don't throw away your coding skills. You'll still need them, especially when things go wrong.
The Bottom Line
These AI coding tools are impressive in some ways, but they're not quite ready to replace human developers and the current no-code tools like Wix, Framer , Squarespace etc. They can speed things up and help with certain tasks, but you still need some technical know-how to use them to use them to their maximum potential..
If you're into tech and like to experiment, you might enjoy playing around with these tools. But if you're completely new to coding, don't expect to build complex apps right away. The idea of coding without actually coding is getting closer, but we're not quite there yet.
In the end, tools like Replit, cursor are exciting glimpses into the future of coding. They're not perfect, but they're definitely worth keeping an eye on. As they improve, who knows? They might just change the way we think about software development.
So, have you tried any AI coding tools? What was your experience like? Drop a comment below and let's chat about it!
