AI Coding Assistant: More Observations from a Practitioner

In February, I wrote about my early experience using an AI assistant for Test-Driven Development, TDD. This is a follow-up. It may become a series, we'll see. A lot has happened in the six weeks since that post, and I have more to say.

TDD with an AI assistant, my perspective as a beginning practitioner

I have been practising Test-Driven Development for more than 25 years. The red-green-refactor cycle is second nature.

I have of course heard a lot about AI tools and LLMs over the last couple of years. The times I have tried them, I have not been impressed. Their proposals didn't compile. They seemed to solve the wrong problem. This was probably because they lacked the context of the project I'm working on. Honestly, a lot of what I have seen has been rubbish.

Not too long ago I saw a thread on LinkedIn where some people who I know really know what they are doing discussed their experience with AI assistants and specifically Claude Code. I decided to give it a try.