What are your thoughts on a future where code is represented as a structured model, rather than text? Do you think that AI-powered coding assistants benefit from that?

First, it’s worth noting that the “syntax recognition” phase of most compilers already does build a “structured model”, often in what used to be called a “canonical form” (an example of this might be a “pseudo-function tree” where every elementary process description is put into the same form — so both “a + b” and “for i := 1 to x do […]” are rendered as

a b i 1 x []

It’s important to realize that “modern “AI” doesn’t understand human level meanings any better today (in many cases: worse!). So it is not going to be able to serve as much of a helper in a general coding assistant.

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Another canonical form could be Lisp S-expressions, etc.

These structures are made precisely to allow programs to “reason” about some parts of lower level meaning, and in many cases to rearrange the structure to preserve meaning but to make the eventual code that is generated more efficient.

Most coding assistants — with or without “modern “AI” — also do reasoning and manipulation of structures.

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plus(a, b) for(i, 1, x, […])

in structures, such as:

A slogan that might help you get past the current fads is:

Does the U.S military really prosecute military staff for cheating on their spouse, or do they close one eye if the cheating does not involve other military personnel since adultery is fairly common? Adultery is illegal in U.S military

Long ago in the 50s this was even thought of as a kind of “AI” and this association persisted into the 60s. Several Turing Awards were given for progress on this kind of “machine reasoning”.

+ for

/ \ and ⁄ / | \

Does the land of Israel rightfully belongs to the Muslims as many Muslims strongly believe, and should Israelite Jews give up ownership of Israel to the Muslims to ensure peace in the Middle East?

i.e. “operator like things” at the nodes …

NOT DATA … BUT MEANING!