Comment Vibe coding just is... (Score 1) 61
I've been programming now for over fifty years. I'll also say that I'm using vibe coding for personal projects. So far, I'm getting good results. Here are some tips:
1. Know what you're doing. Right now, I'm working on an interpreter for a DSL. But I already know the basic structure of interpreters. I can tell when the code the AI is turning out is good or bad. When it's bad, I tell it what's good and ask it to correct the bad code. This usually works.
2. Vibe code in small chunks. I didn't say code the interpreter and here's the syntax. I coded it piece by piece - language primitives, environment structure, control flow primitives, etc. Each step of the way I checked the output to make sure it was what I wanted.
3. Let it write tests. Again, AI's are pretty good at looking at a piece of well-written code and building tests for it. If you point out corner cases you want tested, it will crank those out pretty well.
4. Show it what you want. If you want a particular style in the code, let it know. It will follow that extremely well.
5. Use it for boilerplate. Let's say I have five primitive types in my language. I work with the AI to generate the first one. Then I say "Do the same thing for these other four primitives". AI works well off examples, so give it some.
AI works pretty well if you know what you're doing and how to use it. I think of it as a relatively diligent junior coder. And it works about that well.
