[HN Gopher] Testing a compiler-driven full-stack web framework
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Testing a compiler-driven full-stack web framework
        
       Author : franjo_mindek
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2025-10-08 13:45 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (wasp.sh)
 (TXT) w3m dump (wasp.sh)
        
       | densh wrote:
       | Have any studies been done on the use of newer or less popular
       | programming languages in the era of LLMs? I'd guess that the
       | relatively low number of examples and the overall amount of code
       | available publicly in a particular language means that LLM output
       | is less likely to be good.
       | 
       | If the hypothesis is correct, it sets an incredibly high bar for
       | starting a new programming language today. Not only does one need
       | to develop compiler, runtime, libraries, and IDE support (which
       | is a tall order by itself), but one must also provide enough data
       | for LLMs to be trained on, or even provide a custom fine-tuned
       | snapshot of one of the open models for the new language.
        
         | NitpickLawyer wrote:
         | > Not only does one need to develop compiler, runtime,
         | libraries, and IDE support (which is a tall order by itself)
         | 
         | CC can do that by itself in a loop, in ~3mo apparently.
         | https://cursed-lang.org/
         | 
         | I know it's a meme project, but still it's impressive. And cc
         | is at the point where you can take the repo of that language,
         | ask it to "make it support emoji variables", and 5$ later it
         | works. So yeah ... pretty impressive that we're already there.
        
         | DonaldPShimoda wrote:
         | Research takes some time, both to do but also to publish. In my
         | area (programming languages), we have 4 major conferences a
         | year, each with like a 6-to-8-month lag-time between submission
         | and publication, assuming the submission is accepted by a
         | double-blind peer review process.
         | 
         | I don't work in this area (I have a very unfavorable view of
         | LLMs broadly), but I have colleagues who are working on various
         | aspects of what you ask about, e.g., developing testing
         | frameworks to help ensure output is valid or having the LLMs
         | generate easily-checkable tests for their own generated code,
         | developing alternate means of constraining output (think of,
         | like, a special kind of type system), using LLMs in a way
         | similar to program synthesis, etc. If there is fruit to be
         | borne from this, I would expect to start seeing more
         | publications about it at high-profile venues in the next year
         | or two (or next week, which is when ICFP and SPLASH and their
         | colocated workshops will convene this year, but I haven't seen
         | the publications list to know if there's anything LLM-related
         | yet).
        
         | manx wrote:
         | It's not only the amount of code but also the quality of the
         | available code. If a language has a low barrier to entry (e.g.
         | python, javascript), there will be a lot of beginner code. If a
         | language has good static analysis and type checking, the
         | available code is free of certain error classes (e.g. Rust,
         | Scala, Haskell).
         | 
         | I see that difference in llm generated code when switching
         | languages. Generated rust code has a much higher quality than
         | python code for example.
        
       | monarchwadia wrote:
       | on the other hand, it opens up the opportunity to build a
       | language that is extremely easy to use with LLMs. I suspect a lot
       | of issues in LLM usage comes from the fact that coding languages
       | are built for humans.
        
       | Yoric wrote:
       | See also Opalang or Ur/Web for very similar ideas, both released
       | ~15 years ago.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-10-08 23:01 UTC)