interesting as that is quite different from the experience that the person demonstrating all this had
The worst was that it would write code using API1, API2 and sometimes VB and VB.Net
And we all know why 
That’s certainly an issue when letting it write Xojo code “from scratch”.
It’ll then take a couple of iterations to paste back errors (does not compile, does not exist/work in Xojo), telling to use API 2 for this-and-that (by copy-pasting the deprecations analysis list) - and where maybe some good instructions would help.
But still - even for such a little known programming language it’s surprisingly good. And often a head start that just needs to be polished.
Anyway - and that’s likely why I get the best results when letting it read and work in an exisiting project. It seems to try follow existing style (as it can get a lof of context from there), so the results are usually surprisingly good.
For sure I won’t be going back to just copy-pasting some code snipplets - it’s quite amazing what these tools can do already today when used in some integrated environment. Even if it’s another tool and not built-into Xojo and the manual steps involved like reloading and error handling.
But it’s a lot more fun with other languages and IDE’s where it’s all fully integrated.
Giving it the specs for a change request in an existing C# project, telling to add Unit Tests - and it all writes them into the existing files, creates new ones if required, runs the (existing and new) tests itself, looking at the results and iterating when necessary.
Indeed I was messing around with Claude and a C# project last night and it did a surprisingly decent job
My prompts are probably not ideal but even then it did a good job with a .Net Maui project
We’ve started doing an instructions files that give a high level overview of the project, or section of the project. It then has specific examples of how things should work, any exceptions, and so on. It’s a way to get the AI to be on the same page every time. Good examples at GitHub - gguimaraesbr/ai-instructions: AI Instructions Templates: GitHub Copilot and Claude Code
When I start a project using AI I tell it to make an instructions document so that it can know the project better later on while iterating. And it will update the document when things change. I think it’s helpful as it creates some guide rails.
And there have been times at the end of the day where I’ve been working on something I’ll ask it to create a prompt for the morning so that it can continue on with the work. It is surprisingly good at it. Or at least Claude AI is. I’ve generally found that Claude is a bit better at coding than the other things I have available.
truly just getting used to how to set things up to be successful
I’ve had fun with it so far and am encouraged and intrigued
getting the UI right with things is, so far, not bad
Not sure about adding processing logic via prompts but … we’ll see I guess
Getting used to things I’d give this advice: Start simple and get it working. Backup/commit files as soon as something works like you want. Do the next thing you want and repeat the process. You’ll get to a point where the AI will go down a rabbit hole - not necessarily because it’s dumb - but because you gave it dumb instructions. So being able to back out to a point and start a new instance of the agent is helpful so it doesn’t remember the gibberish it just did. This is where the instructions files can come in handy to give it a nice reference point.
I mean, it’s not much different than figuring this stuff out on your own. It’s just a lot quicker at implementing the good (or bad) ideas. Learning to spot when it’s struggling to figure things out is important.
In my Xojo to Wails UI project it had figured out container, group, and page controls, and then it blew its collective mind trying to figure out a control that was grouped by a canvas. I eventually had to kill it because it just didn’t understand what was going on. And to be honest I haven’t gone back to fix it as I gave it a very complex Xojo project as a test. One of my own intermediate projects it did a fantastic job. So my ‘test’ was reasonably done.
Yeah I’ll have to get the instructions file & have it do commits to git