COBOL Developer's Experience with AI Coding Tools: Limitations and Frustrations
By
zkid18
Sesame, salt, and substance. A flagship bake.
Summary
A COBOL developer shares their experience with AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude, expressing frustration with their limitations. The developer describes specific instances where AI tools provided incorrect solutions, such as trying to import AWS Config conformance packs into Terraform, where the AI insisted it was possible despite it being fundamentally impossible. The developer notes being pushed to use these tools at work despite their shortcomings, highlighting the gap between AI promises and practical reality in specialized programming domains like COBOL and enterprise systems.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledI'm being pushed to use it more and more at work and it's just not that great.
Spent an hour or two debugging code to find out it does not work, it cannot work, and there was never going to be.
Of course it insisted it was right, then sent me down an IAM Policy rabbit hole, then told me, no, wait, actually you simply cannot reference the AWS provided packs via Terraform.
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