Early adventures with Claude Code (Pro) - including Fable 5

[JackKirk]

Sorry for the length of this but I am stoked...

As I mentioned elsewhere I succumbed and subscribed to the Pro plan (USD20/mo).

Initially I used Sonnet 4.6 and found it superior to the free version (you get to use the Code tab) - still minor hallucinations here and there but pretty impressive.

Today I got to use Fable 5 and found it a distinct cut above - if you haven't tried it yet I strongly suggest you do - available on the Pro plan until 22 June - not sure what happens after that.

EDIT: this article has a handle on what happens after June 22.

These are all gut feels - very hard to put any quantification to it - but I am mighty impressed.

I was reworking a B4A app that does notifications, GPS, FTP uploads, some low level handling of photos taken by the device's camera (e.g. geofence properties).

It handled it all without a hiccup (unlike my experiences with Copilot (free)).

It found several niggly bugs that I probably never would have found - and fixed them without problems.

It helped me with several little java object heavy routines:

draw-a-border-around-the-screen-when-app-is-in-background-while-allowing-all-other-apps-to-function-normally - this might seem "so what" but it provides a really neat status capability that takes up virtually no screen real estate and is persistent while allowing the user to interact with any other app on the device.

dynamically-detect-change-of-device-orientation-portrait-landscape-from-a-service - another "so what" but combined with above provides a solid SHOOT - DON'T SHOOT indicator.

You can tell it to read a b4x project from a Windows folder - no problems - I keep it on a short leash so that it has to ask everytime it wants to read something.

It will actually edit the files if you let it - again I make it ask.

I have also added a requirement in Settings/General/Profile/Instructions for Claude:

---when editing a code module always add a comment tag to any line added or changed or deleted of 'claude was here

so when it does an edit you look at the module changed and search for 'claude was here --- see the changes - if you are happy then just mass delete the comment - if not tell Claude to withdraw them, change them etc.

Best USD20 subscription I have ever had...

 

[JakeBullet70]

I am using it on my open source B4A project.

Using it for clean up and documentation at the moment. It does not get everything right but I agree, it is worth it.

 

[JackKirk]

2 weeks later...

Fable 5 got withdrawn - and I had minor withdrawal symptoms.

But found Opus 4.8 with effort set to Extra a reasonable alternative (has same 1M context window as Fable 5 - think that has some bearing on result quality).

I have discovered a useful little trick which I have documented here.

I still maintain extreme reservations about ability of such LLM's to be really creative - vibe coding is in the old G-I-G-O/S-I-S-O category in my view.

What I am finding it is very useful for is:

1. taking existing code (i.e. where the majority of the creativity has already been applied) and enhancing - case in point my B4i PHAsset class.
2. supplying small (simple to define) java and Objective C modules,
3. enhancing larger B4A/i/J modules with (simple to define) additions.
4. auditing large B4A/i/J projects.

On the last one I have just spent the majority of the last 2 weeks auditing customer facing sister B4A/i apps.

I have been involved with software at all levels for just over 60 years - and while I would never venture to claim any massive expertise I do like to think I have developed some good standards re software writing - structure, naming conventions, statement layout, inline documentation, unit testing, full testing and so forth.

O boy - Claude Code found:

o numerous bugs and ill-considered edge cases - nearly all minor but potentially embarrassing that had passed through testing.
o better ways to do certain things.
o missing/deficient/inconsistent/stale documentation.
o documentation spelling mistakes - I had "horiontal" instead of "horizontal" in many places - obvious copy/paste type stuff

A real eye opener - but the nett result is much more robust code.

 

[JackKirk]

I have found a new use for Claude Code pro that I think deserves its own thread.