I’m curious about the extent to which skill files are helpful. I suspect they can be very helpful, but I don’t have enough experience to know for sure. A student introduced me to an interesting approach: point the LLM to code written in the manner you want and let the LLM write its own skill file. This gives some insights into the how the LLM reasons about the code and the broad conclusions it reaches. I was very impressed with some of the high-level concepts and patterns the LLM extracted from my codes. But I haven’t made extensive use of the skill file yet.
D On Thu, Oct 8, 2026 at 09:42 Jerry D <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello all, > > I am sure you are all aware that I have been using LLMs for testing and > debugging gfortran a lot lately. > > I thought I would share a bit about why I have been doing so. > > First, I do want to see bugs fixed and get gfortran in good shape so that > when > the next standard starts to emerge we will be in a better position to > focus on > implementation of the new. > > Second, I think it is important for us to learn as much as we can about > this new > technology and how to use it. There are advantages and disadvantages in > doing so. > > On the plus side these things can run hundreds of tests and variations on > code > to identify defects in the compiler. This I think is valuable by itself. > The > downside of this testing is one can be overwhelmed by the number of > defects > found. In spite of our best efforts over the years, we still have gaps in > implementation of features and issues with already implemented features. > This > can be frustrating and disappointing. > > Yes, the LLMs can identify fixes rather quickly. And, sometimes they can > be very > unreadable. Part of my efforts here involve experimenting with prompting > and > rules to move toward better readability. This includes the simpler the > better. > > In this process I want to acknowledge the excellent feedback from Mikael. > It is > obvious the LLMs do not have high level design approaches. I consider > myself a > novice in this regard as well. > > Third, I do not want to keep marching along here without getting some > feedback > from everyone on this subject. I actually have about 25 patches sitting > on my > worktree to be submitted. Most all have PR numbers assigned. Some are two > or > three months old. > > Shall I keep moving along with this? In the long term what do we do with > use of > LLM tools? > > Do we need to set up an online meeting to discuss? > > As always, best regards to all. > > Jerry > > >
