Hello, all,
My name is Johnathan. I’m an active developer on the Replit platform, and I recently realized that this community is going to contain a lot of new developers just entering the development space for the first time. Being the narcissist that I am, I took it upon myself to make this post and share some useful links and information for those that may not have any experience developing beyond typing into the agent and asking it to do everything.
While I personally like to do this just for fun and see how the LLM works with different languages and prompts, it does come at a risk. For example — say you start an idea with the agent that ends up becoming your next passion project.
BUT WAIT!
You started this project entirely based on fliberflabber you talked about with the LLM / AI (Agent). To save eye strain (you’ll quickly learn that’s part of the gig), I’ll leave us with that one example and lead into more useful information.
Below, you’ll find some links that go to various sites offering a variety of resources on languages often used when developing on Replit.
Tip:
Get used to using a lot of inside and outside (internal / external) material, and spending hours, days, and maybe longer banging your head against every wall in your house until the one corner hits just right and you “brain blast” like Jimmy Neutron — only to figure out how to debug the program that, up until that point, was running flawlessly.
Deep sigh…
Even as “vibecoders,” you will not be able to not speak the languages. Think about it. You speak English, Spanish, French, German, etc., when talking (English right now). While the LLM AI agent can understand English pretty well, your applications will still use a variety of other languages.
Having the LLM as a translator of sorts is really fantastic!
In fact, I used it to help reshape this post — while using all my own language!
However, as the “creator” of this new “brain child,” don’t you want to take it one step further?
Don’t you want to learn how to speak directly to your application?
When it gets all upset, don’t you want to woooe it yourself?
When it runs smoothly, don’t you want to know why? I mean every nook and cranny — like your own home, or the back of your own hand?
If not, then you stopped reading a while ago… or will be seriously let down.
The rest of this post is just going to be useful information for the young Jedi who wishes to embark down the journey of pure chaos, delusional ideas of grandeur, and feelings of God-like power.
Useful Sites
- Stack Overflow
- W3Schools
- Beginner’s Guide to APIs
- MDN Web Docs – JavaScript
- Debugging Render Failures
- Microsoft Debugging for Beginners (Visual Studio)
- Codecademy
- GitHub (Make one ASAP — it will be your best friend)
- The Book of Secret Knowledge (GitHub)
- Awesome Self-Hosted Tools
Books
- Starting Out with Python by Tony Gaddis📖 Preview PDF
- Eloquent JavaScript (4th Edition) by Marijn Haverbeke📖 PDF
- HTML & CSS: The Complete Reference (5th Edition)
PDF - Think Java (2nd Edition) by Allen B. Downey🌐 Website
Misc
Vibe Coding Critique Blogs
- Security Risks of Vibe Coding – Checkmarx
- Don’t Be a Vibe Coder – Medium
- Vibe Coding Isn’t an Excuse – Substack
- AI Coding Is Powerful — But Vibe Coding Isn’t – Medium
- The Problem with Vibe Coding – Dylan Beattie
IDEs
Legalese
- Legalese Guide – Fynk
- Legal Terms Glossary – USCourts.gov
- Guide to Legal & Ethical Use of Software – WashU
- Understanding Software Licensing – Dartmouth
- “Legal Protection of Software” – BU Law Review
- Software Development Agreements – Justia
If you’re still reading: you’re exactly the kind of person who belongs here.
Welcome to the chaos. Let’s build.
Reach out if you need anything. However, please note that I am not a senior developer. I am mid-tier at best. Do not rely on what I say as the word of God — even if I try to pedal my crap as gold.
