> https://github.com/BlueBlazin/lowpolyearth

Publishing screenshots and the README on GitHub but not the code is sneaky at best, deceiving at worst.

I’ve built a retro operating system and programming environment for ESP32 microcontrollers called BASIC32.

I took it to 39% complete, as a language, over 8-weeks. Then, I spent just 50 minutes describing all the missing parts and it finished the language in 1-shot. I didn’t think it would work. It did.

I used Opus 5.5 on a $20 plan and I didn’t even hit my limits.

I used Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5 to build a Python interpreter in Rust. Appears to pass all the 3.12 code I throw at it.

To get a toy version that can run most things takes under 2 hrs. Half of that time is collecting the tests you want to pass, how it should evaluate the code, what your criteria are, etc.

100% agreed.

There's so many youtube channels getting hundreds of thousands of views on EVERY new major model release just doing essentially zero effort one-shots, and people lap it up as if building things that already exist is somehow the best their imagination allows for.

I do love being able to test a model for 3+ weeks (>1 month is too long personally for my budget) and actually learning how to build scalable software and actually develop your "engineering" skills.

I’ve also been exploring a visual way to understand a code base and have explored turning it into a virtual city.

https://app.preview.craftspec.com/app/city/

This whole thing is just a proof of concept, and needs a mouse to interact with.

It’s incredible what AI has made possible with experimental projects that would require months of coding.

The 'blockviz' is same kind-of project i tried to create as well (c4 level model zoomable etc.) so i was surprised to see same kind-of project popup - but this is I think also an 'issue' with these model-created-software.. when you reach'your' vision its already done: for example I clicked on the github link, expected a clear About Install Faq kind of README.md but all I get is the model-created explaination :) can't just download some app and use it without friction. I see this a lot.

yeah, one-shot (medium-large) builds just don't seem to give me good results yet. I use them now for small examples though, e.g. for visualizing a process. Most recently I used it to visualize neural networks, and how convolution works. That might not be something most people need, but it really helped me.

> I've been attempting to build something that ... pushes the model ... never understood ... one-shot builds

Same, and I have found some of the failure modes in the realm of eyes free coding and limited auditing. I often see it more as pushing the process than the model, as I tend to bounce around models for the benefits diversity provides.

Have you also found there is a point where they hit code complexity and start churning without progress? (at which point you have to step in to help the bot step back and think big picture, which usually takes a few sessions)

[dead]