My Take: The Frameworkless Future with AI
Forget Frameworks? My Thoughts on AI Coding Our Future
So, I've been thinking about how we build software. It's always changing, right? And these AI coding assistants are getting seriously good lately. It makes you wonder. We've relied on open-source libraries and frameworks forever. They let us build fast, no doubt. But could AI change the game? Are we moving towards a future where frameworks... just aren't as necessary?
Open Source: Yeah, It's Great, But...
Look, open source is fantastic. Saved me countless times. But let's be honest, it's not perfect:
- Dead Libraries: Stuff gets abandoned. Suddenly your project is built on shaky ground, or you're stuck with a painful migration. Remember that library with 200 open issues? Yeah, that.
- Security Nightmare: Every dependency is a potential vulnerability. You're always chasing patches.
- Bloat: You pull in a massive library for one tiny function. Seems wasteful. Why use a whole framework when you need a fraction of it?
- Learning Curve: New frameworks, new library APIs – it's constant learning, memorizing conventions. It gets tiring.
AI: Your On-Demand Code Generator?
Now, picture this: an AI that actually understands your project, like the assistants I've been building and testing (like that Gemini 1.5!). Instead of hunting for a library, fighting with its docs, and hoping it works, you just tell the AI: "Hey, write me a secure CSV parser, follow these rules, and plug it in right here."
Could the AI just... generate exactly what you need? Tailor-made, no extra baggage. Maybe even more secure because it knows the latest stuff. It's like having an agent that can implement its own functions better than using some unmaintained library. I'm seeing this already – asking the AI to just write the code instead of relying on external stuff. It often feels cleaner.
The AI Train Laying Its Own Tracks
Someone used this analogy – a train laying its own tracks right before rolling over them.
Caption: Is AI the engine and the track layer, ditching the need for pre-built library networks?
That's kinda how I see it working. The AI becomes the tool and the creator, building code infrastructure exactly when needed. We stop relying on these complex, sometimes fragile, pre-built networks (libraries, frameworks). In my own tinkering, asking the AI to just write the function is often faster.
Okay, But What About...? (The Problems)
Alright, it's not magic. I get the worries. How good is this AI code, really? Can you trust it? How do you debug something an AI generated? What about sneaky bugs? And version control when code generation gets this dynamic? These are real questions.
Still, the potential upside – ditching dependency hell, maybe getting safer bespoke code, having full control – it's pretty compelling. As these AIs get smarter (and believe me, they're improving fast), the way we code could fundamentally shift. Maybe the "framework" of the future is the AI itself, building our stuff on demand. Feels like we're on the edge of something big here, like that metacircular evaluator idea.