Perhaps this will help to resist the makefile affect as well as a lack of understanding as to whatever code is being produced and ultimately maintained.
Originally, makefiles were files used for C (or C++) build tools to help assemble a program. This is not unlike:
In Beware of the Makefile Effect, the author defines the phrase as such:
If you read the article, you’ll see that there are a number of examples given as to what is meant by the phrase.
Just as developers have long been susceptible to the ‘Makefile Effect’ when it comes to configuration files, the rise of generative AI tools brings a new risk of compounding a lack of understanding. Like copy-pasting Makefiles, using AI-generated code without fully following how it works can lead to unintended consequences.
To that end, prompt the LLM to explain what each line or block or function is actually doing and then consider adding comments in your own words to explain it. This way, future you, or someone else, will have that much more context available (versus needing to feed the code back into an LLM for explanation) whenever the code is revisited.
It’s obviously not limited to configuration files, either. Let’s include functions, classes, libraries, or full programs.
As it currently stands, we may not be copying and pasting pre-existing files, but generative AI may be close enough (if not a step further): It produces what we need and, if it doesn’t work, we can just tell it to keep tweaking the script based on whatever error is returned until we have something that works.
Tools of a certain complexity or routine unfamiliarity are not run de novo, but are instead copy-pasted and tweaked from previous known-good examples.
Though it absolutely helps us move faster in building The Thing™️, it’s worth noting: Many of these configuration files are the result of taking a working version and copying and pasting them into our project, tweaking a few things until it works, and then deploying it.
Again, the advantage this gives us now versus just a few years ago is great but failure to understand what’s being produced has compounding effects.
