This first week was all about getting our project all setup so that we can run with it moving forward. There wasn’t a ton of AI use yet, but there was some!
We first created a team standards document, in which we laid out how our team will operate and what guidelines we will follow. We also created a project plan document, where we agreed on our project scope, including the basic framework of our application.
After those things were squared away, we had time to start getting the basic framework for our app setup. This week, I used AI (specifically ChatGPT) to create a new frontend app using Next.JS. I had never used Next.JS before, so the AI had some helpful tips for me starting out.
I definitely have already seen some positives from using AI so far. It is really good at generating large amounts of code very quickly. I was able to tell it that I wanted it to create a Next.JS app and it gave me step by step instructions for how to do it. It was also able to generate a couple of frontend webpages for me, including a Home page and a user login page. The way that AI presents information is very organized and practical, and it clearly tries to explain what it is doing, which I appreciate.
I also noticed some disadvantages. It is not very good at debugging code. I came across some errors along the way when implementing the frontend Next.JS app, specifically some uncaught exceptions that prevented the pages from rendering. When I asked AI how to resolve this error, it gave me a few things to try, but none of them worked. When I asked it for more solutions, it basically kept giving me the same ones. So, debugging is not its strength.
One other thing I noticed was that the AI was not necessarily providing me with the most up to date code. Specifically, it coded some things in Next.JS using an outdated method, which Next.JS flagged. I was able to resolve the issue, but the AI did not know why it was wrong.
Overall, I am impressed with AI’s capabilities so far, but it definitely has some shortcomings. Hopefully with more time and experience, I can get it to give me more complex code with fewer errors.
I am looking forward to exploring it more in the coming weeks!
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