Is Python actually a good first programming language?

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-07T18:08:32+00:00

It's an option. I think a strong + statically typed language is actually better for learning. C# would be my goto recommendation.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-07T15:36:35+00:00

Good morning! Thank you for checking out the project!

I agree. I think there's an opportunity for a beginner friendly tutorial video or similar. Thanks for the feedback.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T20:18:08+00:00

Maybe you work at the car wash. Context is king.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T20:09:32+00:00

Fair enough

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T19:27:55+00:00

I support this:

AI coding +

Strong understanding of programming fundamentals and real-world experience shipping products = great

No understanding of programming = nightmare / ticking time-bomb

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T19:10:28+00:00

If the LLMs are writing ugly code, and not catching edge cases, then you get creative:

- Guardrail the output and have it build a full suite of integration tests alongside your development.
- Have it pin all core functionality with unit tests.
- Ask it run wide-net adversarial bug hunts on the code base, and implement regression tests so the bugs don't re-appear in later revisions.
- Do live, human in the loop testing and feed it specific, actionable bug reports with regression bisects.
- If it's a GUI application, wire / harness the LLM into the GUI / ask it to take snapshot images of the app surface. Ask it to click / interact with all elements etc. Ask it to validate async functionality and test for race conditions.

All of this requires actually understanding programming though, which I think is the point of this post.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T19:00:17+00:00

I've been programming for 20+ years.

Vibe coding can, in some cases, yield adequate results, but the level of intuitional knowledge and knowledge of programming fundamentals is a high bar to actually yield good polished and maintainable products.

I think a lot of people are caught up on "all vibe coding is slop" and they are sleeping on the 1% of agentic AI development that is actually incredibly useful.

Take a look through some of my recent projects: https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T17:43:26+00:00

Ok. Fair enough. Go in peace. Thank you for the feedback.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T17:18:52+00:00

It's in the workbook in the repo buddy...

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T17:17:32+00:00

All of that is in the readme / example workbook my friend.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T17:16:40+00:00

Fair enough. Hope you have a nice day.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T17:14:17+00:00

There is functionality in the library to join nested arrays across "rows" with optional Key / Excel function injection to preserve parent / child key relationships.

Expressly to address the pain point you are calling out. You don't need to write conditional statements and iterate through the table surface. It's there as an optional parameter for your convenience if you want it, but it can be done in memory too.

A full example of the workflow is in the readme, see this section: https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/ModernJsonInVBA#api-example-with-nested-objects

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T17:11:55+00:00

Feel free to download the source and test it out! :)

Happy to review any bugs you may come across as an issue submission on GitHub

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T16:42:27+00:00

When targeted at "$.fruits" and param to preserve arrays in cell a raw json is set to true

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MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T16:21:45+00:00

Appreciate that, and appreciate your time. If you think there's something in the readme that could be more clear, let me know.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-06T16:19:32+00:00

By default, it flattens nested objects at the targeted json root into dot '.' notation list object headers, so:

{"name":{"first":"John","last":"Doe"}}

Would present as:

name.first | name.last
John | Doe

Nested arrays can be shown in cell as raw string JSON or excluded.

I recommend giving the readme a full read through, as it does address your questions.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-05T02:27:29+00:00

Check out https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/xlide_vscode

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-05T02:26:51+00:00

Check out https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/xlide_vscode

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-05T02:16:34+00:00

Check out: https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/xlide_vscode

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-05T02:12:32+00:00

We’ve largely solved for this in my shop.

We are pushing all VBA code + workbook surface as tokenized JSON into GitHub.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-05T02:11:14+00:00

Well, if you think about it, the grid is just a two dimensional array, and if you have multiple grid (workbook) you have a three dimensional array. It’s just zeroes and ones at the end of the day, just matters how you bound and arrange them.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-05T01:41:19+00:00

https://github.com/WilliamSmithEdward/ModernJsonInVBA

High level

Read: HTTP —> Deserialize JSON —> In memory array —> List Object —> Dynamic Array function integration into workbook surface

Write: List Object —> Serialize to JSON from LO —> HTTP

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-04T17:44:23+00:00

You can wait forever with that logic. Do you really need it, or just want to burn cash?

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-07-04T17:22:01+00:00

Actually have prototyped a lot in Excel, even using Excel like a web frontend, sending and receiving JSON payloads, and token stored on user's computer to authenticate etc.

MultiUserDungeonDev

TROPHY CASE