I've spent the last weeks developing an actual little app using Python...
It all started with a Let's Play of Subnautica I saw on YouTube.
Since Subnautica is one of my all-time favorite games, I got the itch to dive back in (pun intended). I play with tons of mods, so I had to check for a lot of updates and also juggle different versions since the last Subnautica update broke a lot of the older mods. So after some back and forth, I decided to remain on the older version for now.
Great!
But then I noticed that because of that back and forth and uninstalling mods, all my mods were reinitialized, and that meant trouble for one of my favorite mods, Autosort Lockers. The mod adds automatic resource sorting inside the game, which is super handy. But it was built to only work with the game's resources, not modded items. It does offer config files though. So when I last used the mod, I painstakingly edited the configs and added all modded items, which took hours. And now, I accidentally messed them up and was supposed to redo all of that. The thought filled me with dread.
So I asked ChatGPT, which I have grown quite fond of recently, to help me. Why did I ask ChatGPT? Well, I need to go a bit further back in time to explain that.
One day, not too long ago, I asked ChatGPT to reformat a long list.
ChatGPT said, "Apologies, I cannot process such a long list. Here's a Python script, here's how to install Python, copy the script, run it and it will do what you want."
I thought ChatGPT was crazy, surely that would never work!?
Nut I was curious and also a little desperate so I did install Python and ran the script and ... it did what I wanted. I was stunned. Could I use ChatGPT to write code for me?
Apparently, the answer was yes. So I spent a lot of time directing it, add this, add that, and I noticed that it was not at all as easy as I thought. ChatGPT removed code when it felt like it, and the longer it got the more it messed up. But also the more time I spent copying/pasting Python code, the more I understood. Sometimes, I would just ask "What exactly does this bit do?", and ChatGPT patiently gave me answers.
Running the Python code from the command prompt got tedious very quickly though. I asked: "Can't you make a button for me that I can click??"
To my surprise, ChatGPT said: "Sure, let's make a gui."
And that was it, the moment I fell in love with Python. So I made a few attempts at this and that, most only half-finished because the project got too ambitious for the little knowledge I had.
I heard about an AI especially made for writing code: Github's Copilot. I decided I had to try that.
Since it only worked in real programmer's tools, I installed Visual Studio Code. Now I really felt like a programmer, using fancy tools!
And Copilot made things easier, much easier. It did not delete all kinds of code like regular ChatGPT. It was even more helpful. I was super motivated and got to work on my "Autosort Lockers Filter Update Helper" since Python is very well suited for automating stuff.
Because several config files were involved, and several values needed to be loaded, converted, compared, merged, loooked up, reformatted, and saved into multiple files, it was quite the undertaking, but I am at a point where most of the logic actually works and I have a real program with real buttons that I can click on. I made a program that actually works with my very limited coding knowledge!
It would not have been possible without the help of AI. My patience and long hours paid off. Can I call myself a programmer yet? I'm not sure, since the code was written mostly by AI, not me personally. But I can confidently call myself the director and mastermind behind it 😎 and I actually want to learn more about Python so I can one-day code stuff myself without needing AI to do it for me.
Here is a picture of it (I am proud of those blue buttons 😊):
I've spent the last weeks developing an actual little app using Python.
It all started with a Let's Play of Subnautica I saw on YouTube.
Since Subnautica is one of my all-time favorite games, I got the itch to dive back in (pun intended). I play with tons of mods, so I had to check for a lot of updates and also juggle different versions since the last Subnautica update broke a lot of the older mods. So after some back and forth, I decided to remain on the older version for now.
But then I noticed that because of that back and forth and uninstalling mods, all my mods were reinitialized, and that meant trouble for one of my favorite mods, Autosort Lockers. The mod adds automatic resource sorting inside the game, which is super handy. But it was built to only work with the game's resources, not modded items. It does offer config files though. So when I last used the mod, I painstakingly edited the configs and added all modded items, which took hours. And now, I accidentally messed them up and was supposed to redo all of that. The thought filled me with dread.
So I asked ChatGPT, which I have grown quite fond of recently, to help me. Why did I ask ChatGPT? Well, I need to go a bit further back in time to explain that.
One day, not too long ago, I asked ChatGPT to reformat a long list.
ChatGPT said, "Apologies, I cannot process such a long list. Here's a Python script, here's how to install Python, copy the script, run it and it will do what you want."
I thought ChatGPT was crazy, surely that would never work!?
Nut I was curious and also a little desperate so I did install Python and ran the script and ... it did what I wanted. I was stunned. Could I use ChatGPT to write code for me?
Apparently, the answer was yes. So I spent a lot of time directing it, add this, add that, and I noticed that it was not at all as easy as I thought. ChatGPT removed code when it felt like it, and the longer it got the more it messed up. But also the more time I spent copying/pasting Python code, the more I understood. Sometimes, I would just ask "What exactly does this bit do?", and ChatGPT patiently gave me answers.
Running the Python code from the command prompt got tedious very quickly though. I asked: "Can't you make a button for me that I can click??"
To my surprise, ChatGPT said: "Sure, let's make a gui."
And that was it, the moment I fell in love with Python. So I made a few attempts at this and that, most only half-finished because the project got too ambitious for the little knowledge I had.
I heard about an AI especially made for writing code: Github's Copilot. I decided I had to try that.
Since it only worked in real programmer's tools, I installed Visual Studio Code. Now I really felt like a programmer, using fancy tools!
And Copilot made things easier, much easier. It did not delete all kinds of code like regular ChatGPT. It was even more helpful. I was super motivated and got to work on my "Autosort Lockers Filter Update Helper" since Python is very well suited for automating stuff.
Because several config files were involved, and several values needed to be loaded, converted, compared, merged, loooked up, reformatted, and saved into multiple files, it was quite the undertaking, but I am at a point where most of the logic actually works and I have a real program with real buttons that I can click on. I made a program that actually works with my very limited coding knowledge!
It would not have been possible without the help of AI. My patience and long hours paid off. Can I call myself a programmer yet? I'm not sure, since the code was written mostly by AI, not me personally. But I can confidently call myself the director and mastermind behind it 😎 and I actually want to learn more about Python so I can one-day code stuff myself without needing AI to do it for me.
Here is a picture of it (I am proud of those blue buttons 😊):
...and the configs the app updated:
The app is not in a publishable state and I guess I would need to do far more tests and let someone who can actually code Python look it over before I would feel comfortable sharing it with anyone else, but it feels incredible to have pulled off something like this.
I just wanted to share this accomplishment with someone!
Today, I started working through The Odin Project. So far, I'm only 39% of the way through the foundations course, but already, it's filling in so many gaps in my self-taught knowledge. I started coding aeons ago, playing around in DOS as a kid and pulling apart webpages & templates later. I'm fairly familiar with the likes of HTML and CSS at this point, but diving into the terminal was an experience!
I can't wait to press on. I'm hoping to do at least an hour a day from now on. You lot have got to hold me to that!
im trying to learn code so i can code some text-based games using this really cool (and free!) program called twine, and i found a nice set of videos from this guy where he explains plain text, html, and css
the thing is, this guy who’s talking in the videos and explaining them,,,, hes such a nerd and its so endearing, it makes watching the videos so fantastic because its just like, 30 minutes of him just gushing over css for example. but also he’s genuinely a good teacher and i feel like im actually learning stuff from these videos :D
me, rubber ducking my entire code and then realising it’s not working because i commented out a section and forgot to add it back in: i :) am :) fine :)))
