Jive Coding

#programming #webdev #webapps #videogamegossip #videogames #videogamenews #gamingnews

All the vibe coders seem to be programmed to do the same thing. Deploy React apps. Regardless of what you want to do, it seems to spin up in React as the default. You can tell it to use other languages, but I've not had much success with any other language. I'm also not versed in many languages, other than javascript.

WAY back in the day I did BASIC. Then there was that time that I got into PERL... I've also done some PHP, those were the early days of Wordpress and Drupal. Or course there was also that time that I tried to learn REBOL, but couldn't figure out what the hell I was actually going to build with it. Then of course Dartlang came along, and because I'm 100% immersed in the Google ecosystem, I thought it would be fun to learn that.

Long story, long; the only language that I've found any utility in was javascript. So, hate me all you want. I just didn't go down the same path as you.

I've been trying to vibe code a new version of VideoGameGossip(“VGG”) for a long time now... Ever since I bought the domain (along with a basic WordPress setup) off an Indian bloke living in the UK.

I actually don't know if he was Indian, there's just that meme that keeps coming to mind.

The Name alone, “VideoGameGossip.com,” was worth the price I paid. So I'm certainly not mad about it. And I got some use out of the setup that he provided, but it just wasn't the site that I wanted to run.

For what it's worth, I do have a certificate in frontend web design, which is about three years old at this point...? I don't remember exactly, but I think it was the beginning of 2023. It was right before Amazon and Google decided to lay off a bunch of people, so the certificate wasn't very valuable when I got it. I was fighting over entry-level positions with senior-level programmers. In any case, I do know a bit about React, even though I'm not a huge fan of it. I also have some AWS and old school LAMP admin under my belt. Though, I prefer Digital Ocean and Google Cloud over AWS, all-day, every day. But I suppose that's the subject of another blog post.

In any case, I'm actually a fan of this vibe coding trend. I just think that it still takes SOME programming knowledge to be able to enjoy it. Also, if you've spent any time messing around with running LLMs locally, that experience helps with the process of understanding what's happening during a vibe coding session. This is true for all tech though, having a better understanding of the tech that you're working with will make you a better user of that tech.

General Vibe Coding Opinions

So, it's disappointing to look at most of the discourse surrounding the use of AI coding assisstants and tools. Unfortunately I only see two types of opinions when it comes to vibe coding:

Personally, I think it's in-between. You do benefit from it as long as you understand the code that it's producing. A lot of people will just copy and paste and complain that it doesn't work properly. Even back in 2022 and 23, this was even going on in my frontend bootcamp class, people were already resigned to the idea that Chat was going to take their job. Also, asking Chat to solve their homework assignments for them was much easier than actually figuring out the problems. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. I preferred to actually put in the work and do the coding problems. So my opinion of vibe coding is somewhat more nuanced.

No Two Services Are Quite The Same

The original “vibe coded” version of VGG was built using lovable.dev. That service is good, but there's no easy way to deploy your app to a custom domain (or at least there wasn't not that long ago), and as far as backend infrastructure is concerned, the only option is Supabase.

As I'm sure you can probably tell, currently I'm utilizing Google's “AI Studio”, which will then deploy to the Google Cloud ecosystem/infrastructure natively, and almost seamlessly. Not to mention, a simple web application is relatively cheap, the only real expense is storage. The application is so light that I'm only expecting to pay a dollar at the end of the month. Yes, you read that correctly, $1. If for some reason a bunch of people visit the site, I would probably need several thousand visits for it to spin up enough instances to really cause any problems with the site. Most likely what would happen is that it would stop pulling news articles before it cost me any real money.

If I have to build a custom back-end, I could... Golang would probably be my choice. I'd have to spend more time with it, but for what I want to do, I don't think it would be too complex.

Hopefully I'll be back with my post about our time in Mexico... I think it's a decent story. I just felt the need to talk about the stuff I've actively been spending my time on—of the things that aren't work-related.

Also, it's been a while since I've run or hosted a website, so I'm using this opportunity to get up to speed on the current tech. Let me know what you think! I would be happy to hear your thoughts.