If you’re using AI tools as coding assistants, you need to be aware that these tools tend to be lazy coders. They will oftentimes dump a bunch of random variables and methods and generally make your code harder to interpret for those working downstream from your code–or even a later version of yourself working with your code at a later date.
One thing I insist on in my prompt instructions is to wrap all code into functions and include a docstring in those functions. A docstring (short for ‘documentation string’) is a short explanation of what a piece of code does, written directly inside the code itself. Think of it as a how-to manual built right into a function, module, or class. It’s enclosed in triple quotes and is always the first statement.
I like to include three elements:
- Description of what the function does
- A list of the arguments
- What the function returns
An issue I run into regularly though is AI tools will either reduce them to a brief description or remove them altogether, even though I include instructions to never remove comments or docstrings. Whatever style you decide to go with, I highly recommend being consistent, insisting that your AI tool follows your preferred style, and maintaining vigilance against AI’s proclivity toward lazy coding.