Claude Code*- what are you creating ?

[zedmtrappe]

( * and similar tools)

I've just created a standalone virtual guitar rig and virtual synthesizer.

I'm absolutely blown away by how they have turned out - especially the synth ( based on all the classics of the 80's & 90's - it did an outstanding job of recreating them) which is absolutely as good or better ( in my case ... I added a couple of features not usually found..) as any similar software I have previously used.

Also recently created a document checking / book keeping app for my business - all with basically zero knowledge of coding.




[8-P]

Not used it but played with Emergent a lot.

Is it prompt coding? Ie you describe what it is you want

[zedmtrappe]

8-P said:

Is it prompt coding? Ie you describe what it is you want

Yep. The upshot being that you can get the software working & looking exactly as you want it.

[wombleh]

I have plenty of knowledge of coding so could do it myself but use Claude Code anyway as it's such a massive force multiplier. Building a website for a side hustle that's been on the cards for ages but stalled due to lack of time to do it. I can spend 5 minutes describing the feature and agreeing the spec, then go do something else and come back to it fully working and tested, with the test scripts updated.

I'd tried co-pilot and chatgpt and found they churned out junk, but this is like my own personal R&D team.

A mate mentioned that the term has now been amended from vibe coding to "cuck coding" as you just sit in the chair and watch

[D.warrengolf]

Helping me with the home cinema...

[davek_964]

I've mentioned it in another thread, but most of my main apps are now Claude Code versions - it just means I have complete control over how I want them to look and behave. I currently have apps for:

Email
Calendar
Texts (for occasions I get texts rather than WhatsApp)
Budgeting app
Rental manager for the property I rent out

Some of them are linked - for example, if I enter something in the budgeting app using the template for spending money on my rental property - it sends the details to the rental manager, which creates an expense.

Generally, it means I can make the apps on my phone behave pretty much any way I want - vastly quicker than I could write the code.

[the-norseman]

davek_964 said:

I've mentioned it in another thread, but most of my main apps are now Claude Code versions - it just means I have complete control over how I want them to look and behave. I currently have apps for:

Email
Calendar
Texts (for occasions I get texts rather than WhatsApp)
Budgeting app
Rental manager for the property I rent out

Some of them are linked - for example, if I enter something in the budgeting app using the template for spending money on my rental property - it sends the details to the rental manager, which creates an expense.

Generally, it means I can make the apps on my phone behave pretty much any way I want - vastly quicker than I could write the code.

Does it allow you to create apps that will link to provided services such as Gmail and Google Calendar?

[davek_964]

the-norseman said:

Does it allow you to create apps that will link to provided services such as Gmail and Google Calendar?

Yes.

My 'calendar' is a front end to my outlook/ Gmail calendars.

My 'email' is the front end to my outlook / Gmail accounts and to email on my own domain

[the-norseman]

Interesting, might have to have a play.

[Newc]

Is it something a layperson* could use ? Or does it still need to be wrapped around with software development environments, android security certificates, left handed flange integer pointer managers, and so on ?

I guess: is it realistic to suggest that a technically literate person with no development experience* could fire up a windows pc and build an app that say looks at a photo of a dog and suggests its closest Pantone colour?

• yes me
• also me

[davek_964]

Newc said:

Is it something a layperson* could use ? Or does it still need to be wrapped around with software development environments, android security certificates, left handed flange integer pointer managers, and so on ?

I guess: is it realistic to suggest that a technically literate person with no development experience* could fire up a windows pc and build an app that say looks at a photo of a dog and suggests its closest Pantone colour?

• yes me
• also me

I use it in Android Studio but that sounds more complicated than it really is.
I simply create a 'new' project. Then open a terminal window and in that type 'Claude'.
Then I simply tell it what app I want.

It obviously takes a number of iterations to get exactly what you want. But some things it does very quickly - the rental manager app it came up with had features I didn't ask for and it's genuinely very useful.

You also need to backup the code it creates. That could be as simple as copying to a usb stick, but the best way is to create an account in GitHub and push to that.

[Big Nanas]

Newc said:

Is it something a layperson* could use ? Or does it still need to be wrapped around with software development environments, android security certificates, left handed flange integer pointer managers, and so on ?

I guess: is it realistic to suggest that a technically literate person with no development experience* could fire up a windows pc and build an app that say looks at a photo of a dog and suggests its closest Pantone colour?

• yes me
• also me

Depends what you're creating,
I've used ChatGPT to create an iPhone app that brings in data from London boroughs. I've had to sign up for an Apple Dev account, and set up trust certificates. If at any point I got stuck, a screenshot of the problem and Chat would come up with how to guide you through.

And in my case, Chat automated sending emails to all London Boroughs asking for specific data and their rules about public sharing. That would've taken many 'man weeks' to do, but Chat writes the emails, scans for replies, assesses them then drafts further replies - all whilst keeping any data safe.

It's an incredible time saver.

But as a simpler example, I have 3 humidity sensors in the house, Chat created a working Mac OS app that reads their data and displays it, and the historical data in a nice handy Mac app. That took about 2 hours in total, and my input was minimal.

[Big Nanas]

• duplicate post*

[lord dubington]

a non techie can do loads from within the claude app. i've ditched most of my custom stuff, and use connectors instead.

I use free version of todist as task repository but manage it via claude. artefacts has replaced obsidian for me. the xero connection has replaced tons of spreadsheets. cloud sessions has replaced vscode.

it's at the point for me it's easier to build a custom app as needed within a chat and just use it once

Edited by lord dubington on Monday 2nd November 11:58

[durbster]

davek_964 said:

the-norseman said:

Does it allow you to create apps that will link to provided services such as Gmail and Google Calendar?

Yes.

My 'calendar' is a front end to my outlook/ Gmail calendars.

My 'email' is the front end to my outlook / Gmail accounts and to email on my own domain

This kind of thing gives me chills. Where's the code hosted? Are your credentials secure?

The blind trust people are putting in the tech industry which has proven time and again to be utterly untrustworthy is scary. Even software developers who are normally sensible with security seem perfectly happy to give Claude root access to their laptops.

Yes, it's all sunshine and rainbows now but I think people really need to consider what's going to happen in a few years when they want their money back and you've given them the keys to your whole life.

Email in 2030:
Want to read your emails? No problem, we can read you all the emails we can profit from for just £5.99 per month, or for £15.99 per month we'll also tell you about the ones from your mum too.

[RandomCarChat]

Me and Claude put this together - https://www.mynextwheels.co.uk/

I wanted a way to search all UK car sales sites in one place, limited API availability means I had to get creative with URL based searches and Claude was a big help.

[JoshSm]

durbster said:

This kind of thing gives me chills. Where's the code hosted? Are your credentials secure?

The blind trust people are putting in the tech industry which has proven time and again to be utterly untrustworthy is scary. Even software developers who are normally sensible with security seem perfectly happy to give Claude root access to their laptops.

It does feel a bit like the less people know, the more impressed they are, because they don't know what they don't know and they can't spot the issues.

I look at some stuff and wonder why - even if it worked - that you'd bother rolling your own. Or let all those tools in. And then look at other stuff and just spot the flaws.

It's a bit like some of the recent hype about the automated reverse engineering stuff; looks good as a demo, not so much if you know enough to look closely. Not that you won't get *something* but on everything I've looked at so far it's nowhere near correct or complete, yet some will blindly trust it as if it's perfect - sometimes directly in production with massive financial condequences attached.


The tools are useful - I'm a massive consumer of the stuff - but don't *trust* them to be right, just maybe good enough. Especially if using them 'raw' without checks, tests, rules and all the rest.

[JoshSm]

RandomCarChat said:

Me and Claude put this together - https://www.mynextwheels.co.uk/

I wanted a way to search all UK car sales sites in one place, limited API availability means I had to get creative with URL based searches and Claude was a big help.

I bet the sites that's hitting are overjoyed - did you check their T&Cs? - and in my experience some of the AI generated search/scraping functions can be a long long way from optimised vs just built to work.

Fragile too if there wasn't an API.

Been around that loop and it can be working nicely at the front while doing horrible things at the back.

[rustyuk]

I've been a software developer for over 30 years now and I can tell you that writing code by hand is finished. If you don't get on board with using tools such as Claude you will be left behind.

Over the last 3 months there has been a massive improvement and the old arguments regarding security and low code standards just simply don't exist or should be no different to when the code was hand-written.

If Claude has created a new web application for your company then you should 100% still test it for vulnerabilities but you should not spend £5 million and a year developing it by hand.

Hold on tight everyone it's going to be a bumpy ride!

[Condi]

RandomCarChat said:

Me and Claude put this together - https://www.mynextwheels.co.uk/

I wanted a way to search all UK car sales sites in one place, limited API availability means I had to get creative with URL based searches and Claude was a big help.

Doesn't work for me.


Anyway, there are some tools I'd like to make with Claude Code but don't really know where to begin. Is it really as easy as opening an account and asking it to get going? The things I want are reasonably specialist (ie probably not many things out there to reference/copy) but not complicated to do. Most of the apps I've used like what I want to build are in python, but can Claude make them in HTML instead so they work in Chrome?

I guess for a £20/m account it's worth finding out and cancelling it after 1 month if it's crap.