Re: [dev] [pdmenu] radial (pie) menu for X11

From: Peter Valach <pvx_AT_gmx.net>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2026 18:11:26 +0100

> Aside from (indirectly?) producing a Personal Computing crisis of
> unprecedented proportions since the beginnings of PC in the form of
> artificially created memory shortage for home computer users, AI
> generally creates worse code than humans. I find it more efficient and
> easier to write a program from scratch than to have to review and fix
> someone else's code, including AI.

I read a lot of human generated code during the last two decades and I'm
not sure that is true ;). It is definitely worse than a good programmer,
but often better than an average one; the biggest problem is that it
makes stupid mistakes and hallucinates.

I still think it is an useful tool especially in two cases: if you don't
know specifics of some area, but are experienced enough to fix it and if
you need some variant of something already done a thousand times.

pdmenu is a good example of the first - I found at least a "good enough"
app for everything I need except this; I didn't have time to study Xlib
and even if I had, it probably wouldn't be optimal to spend the time for
a one-off thing. This way I have a functioning app while still knowing
almost nothing about X :), because I know enough about C to fix the few
logical bugs AI did. Similarly I would have to refresh my trigonometry
knowledge from school (decades ago :) to create the full placement
algorithm, but I remember enough to fix the AI generated one and modify
it to my needs.

The second one I use often at work, for example when a customer wants
something done in a framework I never used, it is faster to generate
basic structure with AI and fix/add the important bits, than to read
hundreds of pages of docs. I also quite often need to convert some crazy
formatted data into something machine readable or importable into DB
(detecting values from their format, converting formats, lots of checks,
etc.); I could write it myself in 30-45 min (and often spend a lot more
time debugging :), or have it done with AI in 10-15, including fixing
its bugs. It is usually only used once, so "code beauty" is not
a concern.

That said, unless there are some huge breakthroughs coming, I don't see
it replacing real programmers any time soon.

Sorry for going off-topic, but I see this anti-AI sentiment very often
(almost as often as IMHO overblown AI enthusiasm :) and I think it is
useful in many cases even for good programmers.

> The main idea of suckless movement is to write efficient, frugal code
> without cruft that is currently characteristic for mainstream
> software, and AI just reinforces that mainstream pattern.

I tried to make it as suckless as I could, at least conceptually :), the
code itself definitely has a long way to go; I'll try to fix what I can
and welcome any help :).

I only shared it here in the hope it might be useful for someone else,
not as an example of great code. I use a lot of suckless apps daily and
wanted to contribute at least in a tiny way ;).

- PVx
Received on Sun Feb 15 2026 - 18:11:26 CET