I’ve created an iPhone app that I think some specific section of this community may find useful. What’s the thinking/rules on posting about it here?
I know the ‘drive by’ posts have been whomped, but many will know I am a regular here. It would, if allowable, be a one time introduction to the app. Thereafter I would only possibly mention it (with disclaimer) in a suitable context like I would any other app I use.
As a regular who’s contributed plenty I don’t think there should be an issue.
Yes, definitely. Curious to see it/hear about it.
Please, post!
No one should need to ask permission. Longevity is not a rule before posting, and we have great mods here, now, to help.
Katie
Tell us about it! Why did you write it? How did you write it? How might we use it?
Actually the fact that you are asking before posting says a lot about you and ensuring that you are not violating the rules of the forum. I personally would want to know about the app. Looking forward for the details.
Unless all regulars start promoting their vibe coded apps?
I disagree, for a couple of reasons.
I also think that the term Vibe Coding is being used (in general), to suggest slipshod or “bodged together” when Vibe coding can help produce good apps if the people using the tools have the right experience to do so.
I kinda agree with both. I’m really interested in seeing what a regular user who I respect has produced.
But I’d equally find it off-putting if every member shared their shiny new AI coded app
Having said both those things, there may be merit in having a space to talk about home AI coded apps and especially the process including helps and pitfalls.
The challenge is AI is probably featuring in more and more posts and this is likely to continue. I’m not sure if something needs addressing now, but may well as AI embeds further into tech.
Knowing how to use AI is not the same as being a software developer.
By tools I meant the IDE rather than the AI tool.
Well, as of this morning it’s actually now two apps, so I will include both here.
First up… yes, Claude had a huge hand in producing both of these apps. But… I spent many cumulative hours and (somewhat curiously) 71 build iterations on each app. One of them (the iOS one) I had originally started to develop over 10 years ago, but I hit road blocks that, as a hobby developer, were just too high an obstacle to clear.
The value in “AI coding” is that it was able to draw upon way more context than I would ever have managed in my spare time. Also, the coding is not the hard part. For me, anyway. It’s Apple’s massive API surface with the billions of permutations and silly rules, many of which are not documented. That earlier attempt I mentioned stalled in large part due to being unable to successfully send key information through the components of the app in a timely manner.
With all of that said, here are the apps:
FocalTiger for iPhone is one really only for the photographers. It’s aimed squarely at users of a dedicated camera, but it does support recent iPhone models. It lets you visualise depth of field while interactively adjusting camera parameters.
PhotIdent for Mac is probably more widely useful. Certainly, it was with my photographer hat on that it was conceived. The functionality is heavily based on the watermarking component of my favourite RAW processing app. The trouble was I wanted the same kind of flexibility on iPhone photos, or where I already had a processed version (possibly quite old) that I wanted to share with a watermark.
With those now on the page, it is interesting to consider some aspects of how Claude succeeded or had trouble with these.
First, I was astonished at how quickly it worked out the diagram maths for FocalTiger. I had spent many hours in the original attempt, working out the geometries involved and all the edge cases. Claude got it basically right on the first go. I did have to get rid of a few edge cases, mind you. I would also argue there are one or two odd behaviours remaining, but I’ve not figured out how to sensibly address them.
Second, probably a third of the PhotIdent back and forth was dealing with things I know I would have battled with if doing it alone. Coordinate systems were a challenge, but colour spaces were a nightmare. Both of those had variation based on file types, too. I think the difference between a “vibe coded” (pejorative) app and an “AI assisted” app is dealing with stuff like this that some people wouldn’t notice. Heck, even I didn’t notice the colour space issue until I was judging an issue with JPEG compression (which caused me to flick back and forth between input and output).
Another thing that the pejorative “vibe coded” apps might not consider is testing. Both apps were functionally improved by feedback from the handful of trusted testers I had. One thing I have long known as a developer (and this can affect other creatives just as much) is that being too close to something can leave you blind to its weaknesses. It’s worth noting that build 24 of PhotIdent was completely functional. The release version is build 71.
There were a few cases where Claude suggested things I did not ask for, but it was always called out and often my permission was sought to include, if it was significant. On occasion, I gave Claude free reign to come up with a solution to some of the smaller issues, often asking it to refer to “best practice” or “how others do it” in general. While the FocalTiger layout was mostly defined by me, much of the PhotIdent layout was originated by Claude and fine tuned by me.
I have another Mac project on the go now which is much more ambitious. I have a very basic version running but there are so many difficult questions to answer that I suspect it may take me the rest of the year, including “time off for thinking” to get it ready even for testing.
While I have spent time making these apps “sellable”, they have already met their primary goal — these are tools that I wanted, that I could not find anywhere else.
FocalTiger was an instant buy for me. It will be fun to play around with.
I appreciate you posting and sharing your experience with the build process. My takeaway is that is very important when building an app with AI assistance to have a good depth of knowledge in the business process, technical process, or other subject for automation. Many times, in my work with Claude Code, Claude wants to run off and do something. I’ve fenced it in with rules and demand step-by-step accounting of Claude’s logic and supporting evidence for suggestions. That, for me at least, helps drastically reduce the token-burning build-after-build-after-build cycle.
@zkarj please rename this thread to announce and focus on your product and not make it about requests for permission to post. You should be proud of your accomplishment. No one here should ever feel a need to get permission from other members to post their work. The forum is far less valuable and robust when there is a chill over posting. Let the mods take care of forum rules application and oversight.
Katie
Thanks. Yes, I had intended to change the title but had completely forgotten, so thanks for the reminder!
Edit: A thought I didn’t include in my long missive — there are a LOT of tutorials, examples, and such out there on the internet for the purpose of app building. Many of them are excellent tutorials to teach the example they use. Heck I’ve even paid for some fairly extensive ones in the past. But… these are about app development as much as “how to boil an egg” is about cooking.
Thank you for building the app I need (and telling us about it)! FocalTiger is on my phone and ready to go …