Pete Smith

@hhariri I think the more interesting point is here is - if there's no human to write the code, there's less chance that it's over engineered 😅

If there's no human to read the code, there's no need for it to be readable. And readability was never the goal. Nor was maintainability. A correct end result was and is the goal.

Duke Nukem 3D is 30 years old. Wow. Here's a look at the game's first level, Hollywood Holocaust, created by Allen Blum. This was everyone's first experience with the game and we wanted to make sure it kicked off in a great way.

@NoContextBrits De-hooping

I’m seeing some hot takes that AI assisted coding means that you don’t have to be technical anymore. That’s only gonna last you until the first database migration, or the first security issue, or the first cloud migration, or the first scale out, or the first major regression, or the first refactor that ends in slop. I am finding that I’m learning more and I have to be as technical or more technical than ever before to get the kinds of high-quality output that I expect of any code, regardless of whether it comes from my fingertips or someone else’s - including an AI. Whether your source comes from open source libraries, your own hands, or an AI via your clever prompt, there is exactly one responsible person for the output. That is you. I never want to be accused of gatekeeping AI assisted programming, as non-technical people can get a lot of interesting work done. Until they hit a wall, and it’s gonna surprise them how quickly they either need to get technical, or get a technical person to help untangle the mess they’ve made. The art and science of programming is taking intent and turning it into shipping products. I will never blame an AI - nor should you - for bad output. Own the code that you ship.

@SandyofCthulhu Really enjoying these insights, thanks! Did you design maps primarily from an overhead perspective, or from imagining how it would play from first person view?

A rule that John Romero instigated in Doom was that every single secret needed a hint. He hated the fact that in Wolfenstein, the only way to find a secret was to run around the map bumping into EVERY SINGLE WALL to see if it moved. Ugh. So in Doom, he told me we had to make a hint. It might be an offset texture, a lighting change, or whatever. There was always supposed to be a hint. I'm most proud of the "hint" I gave for E3M2. Look below. See the arrow just below the pinky finger? It's only visible on the map view, and points right towards a secret door. Good times.

I'm so old, I watched Richard write Scandisk! I was an intern at Microsoft in '93 in MS-DOS, and while I was working away on Smartdrv and so on, @lertulo was an intern writing scandisk in the office next door... And yes, it surprised me too that as interns we were working on actual, important shipping features, but I think most of the senior devs were embroiled in rewriting DoubleSpace to avoid the Stacker patent at the time... In any event, as I recall it, Richard wrote the whole Scandisk app in pure x86 assembly, including his own screen UI, widgets, progress bars, and all of that. Oddly, there were no shared code libraries in MS-DOS. So if you needed to convert HEX to Decimal ASCII, you did it yourself for the millionth time in assembly. Why he chose not to use the UI framework from the Edit command I'm not sure, but I assume he had his reasons. What I remember most is that he coded it all in vi, and he was a master with it. I've been using vi casually for 40 years, and I know about eight commands. But his hands were just a blur of weird search tags and hotkeys... I learned a ton just sitting on a chair in his office, asking too many questions, and generally being annoying - picking his brain! He never ultimately did go on to work for Microsoft, much to our loss, I'd say.

@RyanRodemoyer2 @devinbgoble This is why for the past ten years mastery of coding has not been the thing I seek, but mastery of simplicity. Most problems we face producing great software involve people not tech.

@devinbgoble Yeah. I made some broad and sweeping generalizations that if this gets traction will get ripped apart 🤗

Coding is harder than it's ever been while at the same time also the most accessible it's ever been. The sheer volume of knowledge required to produce professional software is at an all time high. Not only that, the knowledge is a moving target. It's impossible for one person to hold all of it in their head. Whereas compared to earlier systems/ecosystems it was possible for a single person to attain mastery (and also stay relevant). Today, the risk with mastery is that you can be obsoleted in a matter of months. Mastery takes no less time to achieve but fades faster ever. Like writing a novel in disappearing ink before you get to the end the beginning is erased.

@ChShersh Respectfully, I have never been paid to produce code!

After programming for 16 years, I noticed that Software Engineer mentality slowly shifted from “produce great code” to “tolerate shit code”

This does not surprise me 😂

Some days it is kind of depressing watching the idiocracy of modern tech influencers teach devs nonsense that probably comes from job-hopping and never seeing the consequences of actions. We know how to build better software; it's not what the popular idiocracy promotes though

@KenneyNL Mate you already have! A whole ecosystem of awesome shit that's accessible to all

Sometimes I just sit and think about creating something groundbreaking in game assets. That's it, I just think about it but have no actual ideas.

@Lord_Arse @CrimsonDizzy 🤣

@beyond_code @CrimsonDizzy Been there.

If you went to a school in the UK in the eighties you'll probably recognise this.

@Lord_Arse @CrimsonDizzy He can't poo though

@CrimsonDizzy He can fart!

@jasongorman Programming does not explicitly consider user needs. Also, programming is one small part of software development (not even the most important part)

@syllopsium @JikissGamer As long as no-one is microwaving cups of tea we can all still be friends

@JikissGamer No, no, this is almost it! Just don't start making comments about the correct order to put jam and cream on scones ;)

I have a pretty bad confession to make.. Hopefully this doesn't land me in prison. I actually pour the milk first when eating certain cereals. HEAR ME OUT I CAN EXPLAIN!! When it's a thin cereal like fruity pebbles, they get soggy way too fast if you pour the milk onto them!

@robconery @shanselman @haacked @scottgu More weird if any of the above had pictures of your mum. Or is that a fair trade?

#Skyrim looks so good on my CRT projector at 720p 👌

@jonkristinsson I mean that makes out like it's a bad thing 😁

@JikissGamer The big wheel thing is just 🤣🤣🤣 I love seeing other players going past with that bad boy

@beyond_code That is so cool haha! I really love how many weapons this game has. I really like weapons that do bleed damage and throughout the game I used these weapons.

I beat one of the final bosses of Elden Ring and got the credits, I didn't know this was the end game. This is the boss at the end of the bad ending. I'm so glad the game doesn't force me to ng+ after that like Dark Souls because there's so much I haven't done including the DLC.

@JikissGamer Dual scythes FTW

@JikissGamer Very respectable! I'm at 125 just finishing lake of rot but I've done most optional stuff up to this point