My Codex usage cap has reset, so it's time for another big porting project. This time, replacing my crummy old Android version of Lights Off with a version that matches the modern iOS app 1:1.
Whenever it goes astray, I tell it to look back at the iOS code and make things look / layout exactly like that
You may have a different opinion, but I believe I have put together a beautiful version of Lights Off for Android. I started it late last night, picked it back up at 9am this morning, and I've started submitting builds to Google Play's internal testing mechanics at 1pm.
(I have burned through 19% of my Codex weekly limit on the $20 plan)
Since people are fascinated by the behind-the-scenes, here's the starting prompt.
I wish I had taken screenshots of the first run, because it didn't look anything like what I have now. But through iteration, perseverance, getting it to refer to the iOS source code over and over again, and doing quite a bit of design research of my own, I got exactly what I wanted, and much more
It has been eleven years since the last build of Lights Off was submitted to Google Play.
It was culled in 2016, along with all my other Android apps, because it hadn't been updated to the latest SDKs
Since it's interesting to some, I have exported what seems to be my full set of Codex prompts to get Lights Off to Android in the finished state you see here, with the starting point of my iOS codebase. Only my side of the conversation, because the other side is information overkill for every reply and lots of references to source code and files (and I tend to not read the replies anyway). I only wish I had taken screenshots of every time I ran the app; maybe next time
https://gist.github.com/steventroughtonsmith/2b8d1c35d0e1d2fd8a59b956e3c3c1b4
⭐️ Here's a closer look at Lights Off for Android, ported from the iOS Swift codebase to Android's Java, screen for screen, in full, by Codex 5.3. It uses the latest Material Design 3 patterns and styles, and it even has an adaptive 'dynamic' theme that inherits your system colors. It supports phone, foldable and tablet devices, with an expanded layout to match, and it runs all the way back to Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.steventroughtonsmith.lightsoff
(Scroll back up the thread for more detail)
Oh and hey, if you've been following along, you can now download Lights Off from Google Play 🥳
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.steventroughtonsmith.lightsoff
@pilif haven't even looked at it! If I were to touch it, it would be through a prompt. If I were to add features to the iOS version, I think I would try handing the pull request as a diff to Codex and have it figure out how to port it into the Android app. The iOS code is the source of truth.
On previous projects the code generated was indistinguishable from my own, so I rapidly stopped double-checking it. But I told it to use Java/XML just in case, since I know how to make Android apps like so
@stroughtonsmith This is incredibly nice of you to share. Thank you! So Cool.
I can see you have used image attachments also. I have not have that much luck with that kind of interaction.
Do you think you would try more with words if you had to do it again? Or the other way around, try more with images?
@eerko I don't find it boring, but I do find it /exhausting/. It's exercising different muscles to programming, not ones I use a whole lot, and even a week of this has me tired out.
Re joy, I fully agree with you. But I still feel like I've created something — it exists, exactly as I imagined it, where it didn't before — even if I didn't have to write the code. I get the same joy from that end result. And I certainly did a ton of work to make it happen, just not the same kind of work as coding
@grork I should have thought to just ask it to generate a transcript, which it did.
I lost last night's transcript because there's a broken image in the chat and it blew up after that, so I had to start a new thread. So this is part 2
https://gist.github.com/steventroughtonsmith/2b8d1c35d0e1d2fd8a59b956e3c3c1b4
@albrecht @stroughtonsmith I want to nuance this a little bit. I have done a fair amount of work with Claude Code and Codex. I am impressed and see a very bright future for them and for me using them and other tools like them. I know the feeling and what they can do.
I also have some experience as to what they cannot do. Replace Flutter or React Native is definitely not something they can do. Not even close. I fully acknowledge your experiences, I do. Just saying the world is larger.
@albrecht @stroughtonsmith I have used Codex to implement a new feature in a fairly complicated iOS app (Swift and UIKit) that is by no means standard. Most of the work is very obscure and non-UI and the UI part is very much non-standard for good reason. Codex figured it out nonetheless and it took me 3-4 hours, with less than 60 minutes actual work for me, to do what I have estimated would be 3 days of work otherwise.
Still: Will definitely not replace Flutter or React Native.
@stroughtonsmith An extra layer to this issue is what they showed off in the Material 3 Expressive announcement video is barely implemented in anything
What Google has actually released is such a tame version of what they announced
Steve Troughton-Smith
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Albrecht
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