The GNOME.org Extensions hosting for GNOME Shell extensions will no longer accept new contributions with AI-generated code. A new rule has been added to their review guidelines to forbid AI-generated code.
Due to the growing number of GNOME Shell extensions looking to appear on extensions.gnome.org that were generated using AI, it’s now prohibited. The new rule in their guidelines note that AI-generated code will be explicitly rejected
Why? If the code works the code works, and a person had to make it work. If they generated some functions who cares? If they let the computer handle the boilerplate, who cares? “Oh no the style is inconsistent…” Who cares?
you shouldn’t be able to tell if someone used ai to write something. if you can then it is bad code. they’re not talking about getting completion on a fn, they’re talking about letting an agent go and write chunks of the project.
So then the policy doesn’t make sense and should focus on what specific issues are associated with llm-generated code that are problematic. For example, I’ve seen llms generate fairly unreadable loops because it uses weird variable names. That’s a valid offense to criticize.
However I’ve also read C code before so I’ve seen an obscene amount of human generated code with shitty variable names that don’t mean anything. So why is the shitty human C code ok but shitty LLM code is not? And if no shitty code is accepted (it’s gnome so I doubt that), then why does anyone need a new rule?
i’d love to review some of the code that you personally wrote.
did you read their statement? they do.
Yes, it says there was an unnecessary try/catch, that’s pretty weak if that’s the only reason.
read their text again, the problem is that people submit code that they don’t understand. and this will grow the more people decide to stay stupid / employ LLMs.
It’s always some definition of works. The code never works in all cases, which works lead to people being annoyed with gnome for allowing the extension in the first place
How is that different from most gnome extensions? Or gnome extensions right after a gnome update that breaks them all? Isn’t being broken the default state of gnome extensions?
@uncouple9831
That person debugging that stuff, that’s who cares.
But if we talking about extensions, no one will debug your code. There like, 5 extensions that used consistently and others have 5-10 downloads. We have like, 5 extensions to hide top bar, cause each time developer just give up, so I don’t really understand this “rule” and reasons behind it.
This is Gnome we’re talking about here, they don’t GAF if extensions work or not. They’ll break them tomorrow if they feel like it.
Contrary to uninformed opinions, they do try their best: https://gjs.guide/extensions/overview/updates-and-breakage.html
Why would that be anyone other than the original author? This sounds like a hosting service is refusing to host things based on what tool was used in creation. “Anyone using emacs can’t upload code to GitHub anymore” seems equivalently valid.
in the case of ai generated code, that is almost always the case. People say “but I review all my pet neural network’s code!” but they don’t. If they did, the job would actuallydtake longer. Reading and understanding code takes longer than writing it.
I don’t think this is in response to my message. If that was the intent, I think you need to define what “that” is, which is always the case.
GNOME manually reviews every extension, and they understandably don’t want to review AI generated code.
Oh…an actually human response. How refreshing. At least one person here got their rabies shot.
Do they actually review it or is it like how android and apple “review” apps? And why would they be reviewing the code rather than putting it through some test suite/virus scanning suite or something? That is, this shit isn’t going away any time soon even if the bubble pops, so why not find a way to avoid the work rather than ban people who make the work “too hard”?
Jeez. Calm down.
I’m calm, but since you need to hear it: nobody has ever in the history of the human race received the command to “calm down” and had it make them calmer. So chill out broski.
Then do whatever you need to do to stop freaking out about other peoples’ right to choose to not deal with LLMs.
Can you point to the freak-out? How do you define freak out?
Yes they actually review the extensions, you’ll find more information on the blogpost from last week.
Oof this just makes it so much worse. It sounds like they have two complaints:
There are more extensions being made now. Good. If you can’t keep up, charge money to review them or something. Even charging 10 cents will drop submissions instantly.
The extensions have unnecessary try/catch blocks. And it’s not just any try catch blocks that aren’t necessary…it’s only the ai-generated unnecessary try catch blocks. Human-generated unnecessary try/catch blocks are fine. This is dumb and a dumb example because it’s a structure whose behavior is well understood and well defined. I add unnecessary try/catch blocks to my code all the time if I don’t feel like digging in at the moment to figure out all of the failure modes of some function. It’s only when a LLM does it that it upsets the poster. Ridiculous.
@uncouple9831 @imecth Because they care. Quaint old concept, I know…
Why are you atting us? Replies show up for us anyway.
Regardless, I don’t know how your statement addresses anything I said.
@uncouple9831 That’s how my Mastodon client works. You asked, “Why would they be reviewing code?” I gave you the answer.
There was more to that sentence. Caring doesn’t mean accomplishing a goal in the highest effort way.
Yes it would be someone else. If the code looks good then it might last a long time, and it could even be expanded upon. One key point of FOSS is that anyone can change it, and if it’s good, people will.
Great, so then it’s someone reading new code either way, so it shouldn’t matter if it’s in the LLM style or random human A’s style, it’s still something you have to read and learn.
But also I wonder if there’s an analysis of how many of these extensions has ever been touched by more than a single human, ever. I don’t know, but I sure wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is 80%.
@uncouple9831
That would be any person trying to audit that barely functioning pile of poorly structured code someone left behind after finishing their contract or being fired, for example.
And is that something that happens regularly with gnome extensions? My recollection is they are a barely functioning collection of random trash code. Were they all written by contractors who got fired?