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Re: Re :1.3



Reply to note from harrybinswanger <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:25:55
-0400

Harry,

> [Claude] wrote 100%.

Good to know. I haven't used Claude to write XPL, except occasionally when something didn't work as
expected. I prefer rolling my own, and writing it myself aids my decision-making about design and
extensions. Claude is amazing and all, but not infrequently barks up the wrong tree when I ask it a
question about XyScript that I already know the answer to.
> even the far less intelligent AI agent I was using in February 
> ratified my likening of something in AHK (or some other more 
> contemporary scripting faciliy) to the distinction between SV and SX 
> in XyWrite, and I don't think I had ever mentioned XyWrite to it. 

It may have been well-informed, or it may just have been parroting what you said in your prompt.

By the way, the New Yorker has an enlightening piece on whether entities like Claude are properly
called a "he" or an "it", whether they are actually "thinking" or
essentially doing what other computer programs do (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/can-ai-go-rogue).
The computer scientist Cal Newport lands firmly on the "it" side, in contrast to the late
philosopher Daniel Dennett, who thought it depends on how the context influences the observer's
frame of reference or "stance" towards the entity. For purposes of developing XyScript, I
think of Claude alternately as an advanced computer program that accepts natural-language queries
and a room full of expert coders who are at my beck and call; in truth, the interaction more closely
resembles a dialogue or conversation with an individual. We live in interesting times.

-- 
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxxxx