Comment by martin_a
5 hours ago
> vibe coded Photoshop clones. Yeah, they work [...]
I think what people (sometimes) miss is that building something is one part of the work, but keeping it running, developing and refining it is a whole different story. And I think all those vibe-coded software will not stand the test of time.
Photoshop is 36 years old now and it wouldn't be the most-used, most-established solution for professionals if Adobe didn't do great work over all that time.
Not really rooting for Adobe here, dislike their subscription models just as anybody else, but I think you'll have to recognize that they kept it running and never stopped.
Absolutely.
I'm… well, "enthusiastic" would be the wrong word, but perhaps "impressed"?… with LLMs-as-coders, but they're objectively poor at business decisions, and Adobe keeping their business running all these years is a thing that I don't think current LLMs could have done.
LLMs don't need to focus on the business. They can make the ideal software for you. Who cares if it's not the perfect software for me? I can have my LLM do that. Especially if there's an open source base for me to start.
A separate question. Consider I'm responding here to (amongst other things):
> And I think all those vibe-coded software will not stand the test of time.
When I use LLMs to write software for me, it is rare that I think "this is great, I should share it". Even when I do, I am aware of how fast these things are improving, so while I put great effort into, for example, having Claude make me a nice isochrone map generator, I fully expect that a year from now any similar project (even if different enough the LLM will not simply clone my git repo) will be a one-shot prompt.
What I did will only stand the test of time if all the AI labs shut down and nobody takes over from them. Same with vibe-Photoshop-clones: a year from now, anyone who wants this kind of thing will get it with one prompt, not thousands, and this specific instance will likely be forgotten.