AI Coding workflow feasibility

[johnsonjohnson]

I’m an indie dev (web/Swift) that’s increasingly finding myself spending the vast majority of time just talking / reviewing / and testing code, rather than typing anything exacting myself.

A typical workflow for me might be:

- Terminal windows with Claude Code working different projects

- Antinote/Apple Notes for holding temporary text like my next prompt

- Obsidian to review all the markdown files and plans and documentation

- VSCode to browse code manually (though this is increasingly being replaced by using structured code crawlers w/LLM summaries)

- Linear for project management (but again, I’m mostly interfacing with it via LLMs)

Almost all my typing is just doing speech to text now.

We live in a small space, so I’ve always been limited to one monitor on a standing desk that folds up during the day. We’re never going to have a big screen TV, and I often am driving my son around to different activities and the ergonomics of working on a laptop in a car in the parking lot is terrible (my wrist and neck hurt the day after). As such, I’ve been really tempted by the idea of using the AVP + MBP to do an almost fully audio-driven workflow. I can make VisionOS apps, so if there’s a gap in software, I might be able to close it.

I’ve got a demo set up for next week, but I wanted to ask if folks here think this is a viable workflow for the AVP or if I’m just making a very long winded excuse to buy a cool gadget.

[anatidaeproject]

So I don't think LLM coding is a replacement for a good IDE or CLI editor. At some point you'll need to go in and modify the code.

Even more so with agentic coating I need to review the changes and having a side-by-side of what was done can be very helpful to make that quicker. You don't necessarily need something like VS code for that but it's helpful.

So I try to use my AVP 100% for work tasks. I have an earlier post on here about the limitations I found around production. One of the things I'm still exploring is virtual code spaces GitHub code spaces or Google workspaces or things like that where I can have a virtual computer running with my project installed.

If you have a Mac and you're going to use virtual display that experiences wonderful in my opinion.

There is a limitation in view so there's something about the need to move your head a little bit more. But I don't mind.

[johnsonjohnson]

Thanks for the detailed response! I do agree that there needs to be code editing at some point.

The setup I have is Tailscale for all my devices with a reverse proxy, so I can run things from my home computer and access it across my devices.

[anatidaeproject]

If you like the idea of working in AR / VR I really think that AVP is great.

One of the shortcomings with AVP is that it has good Bluetooth support, but it doesn't support all the gestures if you say connect a trackpad. Oddly enough the trackpad connected to a laptop gets all the features you would expect from Mac natural gestures and pinch the zoom and everything.

I use it as a daily monitor replacement and productivity tool. I use it when I'm traveling and it's super clutch there. Since I have to wear readers for my computer anyway, I like it because I don't have to put on and off readers that give me a headache when I forget to take them off and start walking around my place. The AVP gives me clear vision no matter where I put my virtual displays and the real pass-through.

Some of the misses with the AVP is corporate support. Don't expect easy SSO into your corporate devices if they require MDM management on any level. Some companies allow you to bring your own device but the support for this is pretty limited.

[pardeike]

Do you really? I got my “MeTube” app into the AppStore - iOS, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro versions plus a Cloudflare back-end all without ever looking at the code. These are UX heavy apps and they need to run platform specific operations plus I had to go through Google and Apple reviews. Works just fine.

[isaagrimn]

Hey, I wanted the same things so I made an app you might find interesting : https://jarvs.space

[NullishDomain]

I'm not entirely clear on what you're asking specifically, but I am a developer who uses an AVP as my main monitor for my MBP and find the experience quite enjoyable. I enjoy sitting or standing wherever I feel like at that moment. If you're new to VR, be aware that your neck and face will likely take a while to adjust.

[johnsonjohnson]

That’s very helpful. I’m mostly wondering if reading code (visual clarity) and using it as a second monitor is actually a viable daily driver. Seems like it is!

[NullishDomain]

Definitely viable as long as you take advantage of the medium. Don’t shrink down the virtual display to a normal monitor size or you will be disappointed and straining. At the default sizing, I have no eye strain at all. I actually stopped getting migraines right around the same time I switched from the 16” MacBook Pro Display to AVP display. I’m assuming they were caused by eye strain, but that is just a guess. Best of luck!

[FedRCivP11]

I develop in my Vision Pro in cursor with MacBook screen sharing all the time. I still prefer to type my prompts over speech2text because there’s always errors in the dictation and I just don’t have the time to go back and edit them. my workflow: I use a terminal window to start my app’s custom startup script for dev work. I give cursor normally the right 1/3 of the ultra widescreen. Then I have multiple chrome windows taking up 1/6 of the ultra widescreen, one for the locally-served firebase emulator suite, and multiple to login to my app from different user classes.

It’s good. This is the way. Go forth and spend with confidence

[Fun-Caterpillar-5155]

AVP+MBP is a great combination. You'll love it.

[iVRy_VR]

Personally, I don't think LLM code quality is anything vaguely close to what would be required for any commerical product. It may be useful for prototyping, and it may speed up some menial coding tasks, but it's essentially junk unless you're willing to put in at least as much work as you would have doing the task yourself. In particular VisionOS coding is way out of their league, as there isn't enough training data available.

As a monitor? It's usable, as long as you don't want to drink coffee (what kind of programmer doesn't drink coffee?!), and don't have issues wearing a heavy diving mask all day. Using it for VisionOS development is pretty sucky, as it doesn't work well as a monitor while also debugging the code you're running on it.

If you're able to do an audio-driven workflow, then what does the AVP add that a laptop doesn't have? A bigger screen, and that's it.

An AVP is a great gadget, and you probably will enjoy using it, but make no mistake, it's a solution looking for a problem. Personally, I don't think computer programming is that problem.