I’d like to set up a local coding assistant so that I can stop using Google to ask complex questions to for search results.
I really don’t know what I’m doing or if there’s anything that’s available that respects privacy. I don’t necessarily trust search results for this kind of query either.
I want to run it on my desktop, Ryzen 7 5800xt + Radeon RX 6950xt + 32gb of RAM. I don’t need or expect data center performance out of this thing. I’m also a strict Sublime user so I’d like to avoid VS Code suggestions as much as possible.
My coding laptop is an oooooold MacBook Air so I’d like something that can be ran on my desktop and used from my laptop if possible. No remote access needed, just to use from the same home network.
Something like LM Studio and Qwen sounds like it’s what I’m looking for, but since I’m unfamiliar with what exists I figured I would ask for Lemmy’s opinion.
Is LM Studio + Qwen a good combo for my needs? Are there alternatives?
I’m on Lemmy Connect and can’t see comments from other instances when I’m logged in, but to whomever melted down from this question your relief is in my very first sentence:
to ask complex questions to for search results.
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Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters DNS Domain Name Service/System Git Popular version control system, primarily for code IoT Internet of Things for device controllers NAS Network-Attached Storage NVMe Non-Volatile Memory Express interface for mass storage Plex Brand of media server package SAN Storage Area Network SBC Single-Board Computer VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
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I recommend llama.cpp instead of LM Studio.
Why? I use LM studio today, but I’m always interested in futzing with things. Is there a good reason to switch?
Llama.cpp is quite a bit faster than lm studio and ollama. It’s easy to find benchmarks showing 2-3x speed ups. I recently switched and am liking it.
In other words, that article is about “self-hosted mind atrophy with skills degradation running in parallel.”
No. Absolutely no. You should code with your mind, and stay creative.
Related: Using AI Generated Code Will Make You a Bad Programmer
if I can get the machine to save me 20 minutes by churning out pojos and other boilerplate so I don’t have to, that’s a win.
If you’re giving it the creative work, then you’re an idiot. But have the toaster toast the bread.
Straight up vibe coding is a horrible idea, but I’ll happily take tools to reduce mundane tasks.
The project I’m currently working on leans on Temporal for durable execution. We define the activities and workflows in protobufs and utilize codegen for all the boring boiler plate stuff. The project hasa number of http endpoints that are again defined in protos, along with their inputs and outputs. Again, lots of code gen. Is code gen making me less creative or degrading my skills? I don’t think so. It sure makes the output more consistent and reduces the opportunity for errors.
If I engage gen AI during development, which isn’t very often, my prompts are very targeted and the scope is narrow. However, I’ve found that gen AI is great for writing and modifying tests and with a little prompting you can get pretty solid unit test coverage for a verity of different scenarios. In the case of the software I write at work the creativity is in the actual code and the unit tests are often pretty repetitive (happy path, bad input 1…n, no result, mock an error at this step, etc). Once you know how to do that there’s no reason not to offload it IMO.
While you are correct, as all tools AI is not bad per se.
If you use ai to replace more lengthy documentation searches and write your own code that works out pretty well and speed up your work without degrading your coding. Granted, I got plainly incorrect answers as well, but at least I managed to be much more efficient.
Treat LLMs/ai as a glorified documentation aggregator and that’s how you correctly use that tool.
Like, use a knife to cut and cook meat, not to cut another person body, and that’s how you correctly use that tool too.
In my experience using AI for that replaces legthy documentation searches with reading lengthy AI output that turns out to be full of halucinations. Net time saved usually negative.
My recent experience regarding questions on documentation:
- dovecot: shitty useless responses, totally made up
- Gentoo linux: to be checked twice and mostly wrong or fake
- godot: accurate and correct almost always, maybe examples not always 100% correct
- C++ standard 17: correct, never had a wrong reply from llm, also the exact ples where on point and correct
I think that’s all what I have used it for in the last six months.
Note: I used only Google search AI llm, nothing else.
So it seems that depends on what you ask.
We can’t ignore this. We need to know how it is done if we want to earn salaries. Reality rarely makes a dent in the corporate herd until years later.
By then, careers are obliterated.
There are ways to protect your mind in the meantime.
What is the way
Use AI, learn the methods, tools, uses. Then keep working through the process yourself like you do now with AI as a partner who sometimes flakes out.
Remind yourself of the tenents of critical thinking regularly. Never just accept what AI tells you. seek proof behind the answers. Think through those answers to ensure you understand the logic behind them.
Fight complacency.
The golden rule I’ve heard is: no long conversations.
