u/BX1959

I don't actually know how Bjarne Stroustrup (the creator of C++) feels about LLMs or vibe coding. However, I've found some helpful arguments in favor of traditional programming from the 3rd edition of his 'Programming: Principles and Practices Using C++' textbook. (I've enjoyed playing around with C++ here and there, but I want to gain a more solid foundation with the language.)

Here are just a few of my favorites--I'm sharing them in case they inspire anyone else who prefers to write code by hand.

• "Programming is like athletics, music, dance, or any skill-based craft. Imagine people trying to compete in any of those fields without regular practice. You know how well they would perform. Constant practice--for professionals that means lifelong constant practice--is the only way to develop and maintain a high-level practical skill." (p. 25)

• "Often, a problem is only fully understood through the process of programming a solution for it." (Preface, p. vix)

• "We consider programming itself a form of problem solving: only through complete understanding of a problem and its solution can you express a correct program for it, and only through constructing and testing a program can you be certain that your understanding is complete. Thus, programming is inherently part of an effort to gain understanding." (p. 8)

• "Programming is learned by writing programs. . . . You cannot learn to swim, to play a musical instrument, or to drive a car just from reading a book--you must practice. Nor can you become a good programmer without reading and writing lots of code." (Preface, p. x)

• "Like mathematics, programming--when done well--is a valuable intellectual exercise that sharpens our ability to think." (Preface, p. vix)

• "We insist that craftsmen must understand their tools, not just consider them 'magical.'" (p. 6)

• "Programming is understanding." (Kristen Nygaard, p. 115)

I don't think these quotes were written as a reaction to AI; many, or perhaps all, of them were probably present within his earlier copy of the book as well. Nevertheless, they constitute solid reasons to continue learning and writing code the 'old-fashioned' way.