For example "Prompt: Write me an Atari BASIC program that draws a blue circle in graphics mode 7."
You need to know that there are various graphics modes and that mode 7 is the best for your use-case. Without that preexisting knowledge, you get stuck very quickly.
I believe many in this debate are confusing tools with magic wands.
sure it maybe someday but not today, but there are jobs that already get replaced tho for example like writing industry
Unfortunately, it's usually the ones who control the money.
* https://archive.org/details/ataribooks-computes-third-book-o...
* https://atariarchives.org/c3ba/page153.php
Fun fact: Orson Scott Card can be found in chapter 1.
- Attempting to use BBC BASIC features in Atari BASIC, in ways that parsed but didn't work - Corrupting OS memory due to using addresses only valid on an Apple II - Using the ORG address for the C64, such that it corrupts memory if loaded from Atari DOS - Assembly that subtly doesn't work because it uses 65C02 instructions that execute as a NOP on a 6502 - Interrupt handlers that occasionally corrupt registers - Hardcoding internal OS addresses only valid for the OS ROM on one particular computer model
The POKE 77,0 in the article is another good example. ChatGPT labeled that as hiding the cursor, but that's wrong -- location 77 is the attract timer counter on the Atari OS. Clearing it to 0 periodically resets the timer that controls the OS's primitive screensaver. But in order for this to work, it has to be done periodically -- doing it at the start will just reset this timer once, after which attract mode will start in 9 minutes. So effectively, this is an easter egg that got snuck into the program, and even if the unrequested behavior was desirable, doesn't work.
I started another project recently basically vibe coding in PHP. Instead of a single page app like I made before, it's just page by page single loading. Which means the AI also only needs to keep a few functions and the database in its head, not constantly work on some crazy ui management framework (what that's called).
It's made in a few days what would have taken me weeks as an amateur. Yet I know enough to catch a few 'mistakes' and remind it to do it better.
I'm happy enough.
That said, you can learn a lot using LLMs, which is nice. I have a friend who wants to learn Python, and I have given him actual resources, but I have also told him to use LLMs.
I think that is a very vague and ambiguous way of putting it.
I would frame it a tad more specific: vibecode seems to work best when users know what they want and are able to set requirements and plan ahead.
Vibecoding doesn't work at all or is an unmaintainable god awful mess if users don't do software engineering and instead hack stuff together hoping it works.
Garbage in, garbage out.
I still agree with you for large applications but for these simple examples anyone with a basic understanding of vibe coding could wing it.