It is hard for me to tell whether or not my not-using-GPT4 as a programmer is because I'm some kind of boomer, or because it's actually not that useful outside of filling Google's gaps.
I've tried it. Here are some examples. I didn't save the original prompts and answers.
Use the elliptic functions provided by Matlab to calculate the length of an elliptic arc. (I already knew that there is a closed-form solution to this in terms of elliptic functions. Everyone writing an introduction to elliptic functions mentions this, but I have never seen anyone give an actual formula. The task is complicated by the existence of multiple conventions for defining these functions.)
It gave some Matlab code using elliptic functions, but it was simply wr... (read more)
Why not both? For me, age and curmudgeonliness makes me reject it for not being "enough better". I'm not sure what my standards are, but I recognize that what I've tried so far isn't perfect, but is probably somewhat faster than search and modify. Just not ENOUGH to get me to invest the time in getting as good at it as I am at more traditional semi-plagiarism.