Vibe coding a weather app

[darngooddesign]

Spent the weekend using Claude to code an app. Started out as a web app which was much easier to concept together, and then converted it to a classic Mac app with RealBasic 5. Claude was really helpful in troubleshooting all the reasons different parts didn’t work, besides my complete lack of experience that is. 😁

I’m still working on the graphics, but I’m pretty happy so far.

Pixelated & Sunny

• Hour view
• Week view
• Favoriting a city which it does by saving a text file in the app folder
• Dark mode

Here it is on my Duo 2300:


Splash screen

Hourly forecast

Daily forecast with city favorited


Dark mode

 

[TheShortTimer]

This is neat! 😀

Does it provide the weather for all cities or specifically those in the U.S. at the moment?

 

[darngooddesign]

This is neat! 😀

Does it provide the weather for all cities or specifically those in the U.S. at the moment?

Right now it’s pulling weather from a list of 60 major us cities based on their lon and lat. Even still there is a 1 or 2 second lag on my Duo reading a list of 60 that I didn’t feel in sheepshaver where I built it. Thats one of the things I want to improve in it.

To deal with SSL, which System 8/9 cant really deal with I have a php hosted that reads an https api and provides an http link my Powerbook can deal with. There was a lot of setup and bug fixing in the php because it reads and serves up the weather data in the hourly/daily slots the app uses.

 

[darngooddesign]

This is neat! 😀

Does it provide the weather for all cities or specifically those in the U.S. at the moment?

My latest version now has a search field which searches globally.




Also, one great side effect of my app’s lookup php is that I can use it to make the Dashboard Widget work.

 

[TheShortTimer]

This gets better and better. 🙂

Do you plan to share it with the community at some point? I'd love the chance to be able to play around with it.

 

[kencu]

that weather girl has such a 1980s/90s computer graphics vibe...

 

[darngooddesign]

that weather girl has such a 1980s/90s computer graphics vibe...

Unfortunately I had to drop her from the splash screen. In testing I found that most people didn’t notice the search button. This is the new splash.

 

[kencu]

By what process does claude vibe code in RealBasic on classic MacOS?

I can’t quite guess.

 

[darngooddesign]

By what process does claude vibe code in RealBasic on classic MacOS?

I can’t quite guess.

I’m not using Claude in an agentic sense so I think the process is the same, regardless of which app you’re coding in. I planned out the structure, features, and UX of the app; Claude figured out the code and where in the app to place it. The smoothness and “trial and error“ nature of programming for the twenty year old LOL RealBasic 5 it was probably exacerbated by if not being as familiar with the IDE as it would say Xcode. This has been especially apparent as I’ve been de-bugging problems that arise.

One thing I’ll say, is that the very very first version of this app I did as a web app which was significantly quicker to build a prototype on because all the codes lived in a single page, well two if you count the PHP, as opposed to having to place the code in all kinds of methods, events, and screen drawing sections.

When I encountered weird forecasting issues, Claude was very good at looking at the raw API browser output, and figuring out what issues were arising.

A cool end-result has been that I now know enough about programming in real basic to make edits and add small features myself without having to rely on Claude.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

As a learning tool is how I hope[d] AI would be used.

Neat App!

 

[darngooddesign]

This gets better and better. 🙂

Do you plan to share it with the community at some point? I'd love the chance to be able to play around with it.

Sent you a message.