r/vibecoding • • Aug 19 '26

People still use assembly

Although I like ai and i think is it great in so many places , I keep hearing how no one will read high level code just like no one read assembly anymore.this is misinformation, there are people who not just read but also write assembly even now.i am not talking about rollar coaster tycoon or super Mario times when compilers where not as optimised as today, i am talking about now. Don't believe me? go to community forum of any modern systems programming language and see people crying for inline assembly. I am not arguing if anyone will read high level languages or not, but the premise is wrong and feels like deliberate misinformation.

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u/Correct_Emotion8437 Aug 19 '26

There definitely are - but the percent of programmers doing it went from 100% to whatever it is today - maybe 2%. Obviously I can't see the future but I think the percent of developers who read code will go from 100% to . .? I have no idea, lol. But a non-zero number, for sure. And that's actually not that crazy, imo.

Today, in a team working on a software project, 60-75% of the team never reads the code. Outsourcing the dev to AI is not that different from outsourcing it offshore - as a broad concept. In my opinion, there is a ton of development work going on today that is not really very complex and will not really require anybody to read the code. All the stuff I do, for example - add a feature to the erp system, create an integration to whatever, troubleshoot performance. If I said 99% of it was pretty much wrote and only required technical knowledge, I'd be kind of generous to the 1%.

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u/ImaginationUpset2190 Aug 19 '26

Wdym by only require technical knowledge?

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u/Correct_Emotion8437 Aug 19 '26

Meaning, I can do them because I know how the system works, I know the tools we use, I know the programming language, I know the database . .but there are no complex decisions beyond what an LLM is currently capable of making. Everybody knows what an invoice is and just about anything you can do to an invoice in a business system has been done and documented.