YHK - yet another hacker news clone

No AI, 52 min. Build all Linux Files utils in C by Hand [video]

54 points surprisetalk 2 days ago 49 comments

ReDress 2 hours ago | parent

I just looked at the first example / utility he implemented; which was 'touch'

Will this actually update the 'last modified' date for an already existing file?

Also, there's a standard way of processing command line arguments on Linux/Unix, which is not being followed here.

lycos 2 hours ago | parent

to be fair the title didn't promise it would be done well

ReDress 2 hours ago | parent

well, if we go by the title then I would expect that he's writing the code on a piece of paper and not typing into a computer - heh

But, okay, that could make a valid excuse.

But, what you cannot excuse yourself for, is that you don't really add any functionality. In fact, you don't reproduce all the functionality let alone adding more.

danielbln 2 hours ago | parent

But it's no AI, it's organic, hand woven, the toil and pain of really putting it down by hand... or something of the sort.

agumonkey 1 hour ago | parent

True slop ?

danielbln 1 hour ago | parent

The true ultimate expression of the human condition.

piekvorst 1 hour ago | parent

Primitive technology, modern look

_ache_ 2 hours ago | parent

No it will *replace* or create the files "touched" by an empty file.

Major bug in the first command.

Technically, yes, it updates the last modified date, by actually emptying the file. He should have use "w+" or "a" instead of "w".

PS: I like this guy.

geocar 1 hour ago | parent

w+ truncates

Joker_vD 38 minutes ago | parent

Such a baffling option, to be fair, I don't think I've ever used it. Like, what's even the point?

taspeotis 1 hour ago | parent

Should have used AI

suddenlybananas 1 hour ago | parent

Well, if the point is to have something that works well and follows the standard, he shouldn't have done anything at all and just use what was already made.

eurekin 40 minutes ago | parent

That's my personal suspicion, why there's no real coding tutorials like that on YouTube. Having so many eyes to basically rip to shreds your output is probably the reason.

el_psy_congroo 1 hour ago | parent

sometimes, I really miss coding by hand

dolmen 1 hour ago | parent

What is stopping you?

KingOfCoders 1 hour ago | parent

Probably "I miss coding by hand and being paid for that".

Might be a 9-5 coder.

sevenzero 1 hour ago | parent

What's wrong with being a 9-5 coder?

ReDress 1 hour ago | parent

It's when I wrote some code at work. I couldn't easily complete the task. Each day I go to work and write even more code. The task is far from complete. I have written hundreds of thousands of code so far.

I seem to be closing in the completing the task nowadays, though.

It has been 5 years so far.

cocoto 31 minutes ago | parent

Personally I let Claude handle most code while I do some coding challenges by hand on the side to keep the brain sharp.

ksh09 23 minutes ago | parent

Thing is if you do things by hand or do not, It's still for company. You'd be penalized in some cases for not using.

For personal software yes it's a good exercise.

XorNot 29 minutes ago | parent

I really don't. I've realized I never liked coding. I liked designing and watching manual tasks become autonomous.

So AI software development is basically giving me everything I want: see a problem, iterate on the design I think will fix it, try it out. And then it works.

I have personal Android apps which "I developed" by having Claude update the react native hot reload view as I used them for the main application, and the biggest change in my home server infrastructure has been retooling it to support the fact that almost all the apps I use going forwards will be built and hosted locally.

jcfrei 1 hour ago | parent

I kind of expected this to happen: Coding will become an "artisanal craft" - much like woodworking for example. Sure for most of your furniture you can just go to ikea but every now and then you might get joy from making something with your own hands.

ryandetzel 1 hour ago | parent

While I like the analogy, I'm not sure it holds how I think of AI. I'd do woodworking because I want better quality for less money, and that's why I use AI now. "Hand crafting" code might be fun but it doesn't get you it cheaper or better anymore IMHO

whatthejesus 1 hour ago | parent

Better quality for less money? No. You do woodworking (if in fact you do) because you enjoy it. The time spent making a decent piece of furniture you could work at McDonald’s and buy a nicer piece in less time it takes to master woodworking.

So, don’t kid yourself! You enjoy it, and if you’ve mastered the skill then naturally you can save money over time. But I’d wager you spend more in hours mastering the skill than if you were to buy a couple pieces of furniture. ;)

JdeBP 1 hour ago | parent

I'm not sure that societal trends can be extrapolated from YouTube videos, certainly not from one YouTube video, or channel. There's a lot of oddball stuff on YouTube that, if taken to be definitive would have you, for example, believing that the human race is becoming MMORPG players from New Zealand.

What it might illustrate is that "No AI" and long-format are currently seen as ways of attracting attention.

turing_complete 44 minutes ago | parent

There has been a "handmade" software subculture for years. Think of handmade hero or treating he better software conference.

YetAnotherNick 1 hour ago | parent

Having purchased furniture recently, it is not easy to get what you exactly have in mind or get matching things for a room. So there is value in building furniture by hand.

Not sure about coding though. There could be some thing which humans will do better. Maybe humans will always be better at understanding intent of other humans as they share same biology.

eunos 57 minutes ago | parent

just like artisanal pasta (read: a human willingly spend time to cut the pasta from the pasta machine), we'll charge double

jraph 46 minutes ago | parent

I'm kinda bored to read these pro AI arguments, which seem to come by waves. Suddenly everyone seems to say the same thing at the same time and it's been like this for months. Previously it was "it's there to stay", and then "you will be left behind if you don't use it", and this week its "coding yourself is for hobbies" or "is like artisanal work [which is cute but not really productive]".

Is it the $3B anthropic pretends to spend on marketing doing its job?

XorNot 35 minutes ago | parent

I mean you can be bored all you want, but the technology works. That's the difference. This isn't cryptocurrency where "you gotta get in to make it big (because I need to sell it to you)". It works: the results are real, the code runs, you can read it - the systems it provides are real.

Even the security argument has evaporated: AIs now hack better then people. They're better bug-finders then developers. The tool which exploits your app itself would be another AI system. On a good day you might be smarter then it...but you're not faster, and you don't have the perseverance.

My challenge would simply be: buy a low-tier Claude license. Or some other system - I use Claude so that's the example. Point it at something you wrote. And realize in the span of about an hour how obsolete the human developer writing code truly is.

jraph 25 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, we know. The technology is definitely impressive, and kinda fascinating actually, I must admit. If you ignore the huge externalities and all the problems it creates, that is.

Can you just guys go vibecoding and stop trying to convince us or yourselves?

NewsaHackO 16 minutes ago | parent

I don’t know, I feel like he is using a lot more convincing arguments than just being dismissive without real substance like you are. When you say huge externalities are you referring to something that hasn’t been seen in other major industrial paradigm shifts?

lifeisloving 9 minutes ago | parent

They arent better bug finders, I can assure you. They definately are great fuzzing tools, but if you really think AI is a better bug hunter than humans there's millions in bounties waiting for you and your claude code session to pick up off the ground. I can assure you its not what you think it is.

nurettin 19 minutes ago | parent

What's your opinion?

xyzsparetimexyz 6 minutes ago | parent

Just like how IKEA furniture is plasterboard trash compared to the quality that we used to have with furniture (and can still get if we pay large sums), so has ai reduced code quality to this messy homogeneous pulp.

assumed_throwaw 1 hour ago | parent

I discovered his videos a few days ago. I imagine the "algorithm" pushed those into a lot of HN users' feeds.

Just this morning, I was wondering if it would make sense to share it on HN. And here it it on the front page. What a small world.

bananaquant 45 minutes ago | parent

Finally a video where creator's face overlaid on top of the content actually contributes value.

amelius 41 minutes ago | parent

What did the LLM bug check say?

suddenlybananas 39 minutes ago | parent

You seem completely joyless.

amelius 24 minutes ago | parent

Thanks to AI, yes.

TheRoque 35 minutes ago | parent

This cursor sound is almost asmr-ish, damn.

lifeisloving 34 minutes ago | parent

*while smoking cigs

ligarota 27 minutes ago | parent

Just a guy using libc in fact...

enriquto 27 minutes ago | parent

how soothing this is

the Bob Ross of programming

gozzoo 11 minutes ago | parent

We mostly saw the guy typing. The clicking sound is very distracting. Using vim didn't do him any favour. I would be much more impressed if we could get more insight into to the thinking and problem solving process. Also smoking is not commonly accepted productivity booster. He could have watched porn instead.