The Ancient Vibe Coding Secrets of FileMaker Developers

So you’re working on a project and you hit a bump in the road.
Something isn’t working and you need help. Documentation, a step by step guide, some syntax, a video or something else.

It used to be that we would search for an answer on Google. Many of us are even ancient black belt masters of Google-Fu. Mastery of Google required a bunch of disparate skills, like scanning search results, skimming blog posts, forming queries and occasionally scraping a website or two. Now that we’re in the the AI era, we often turn to LLMs first. For many reasons, that can have mixed results. I’ve often repeated this:

“ChatGPT gives you 80% of the answer 50% of the time.”

While that is usually still a significant time savings over Google, sometimes it leads you astray. If you’re not careful, you can end up at the bottom of the wrong rabbit hole pretty fast. Some people call it “vibe coding”. If you’ve never heard those words before, it's a cycle that goes like this:

1. You prompt an LLM to write some code.
2. You copy/paste that code into your solution.
3. You test the code.
4. If it works, you move on.
5. If it doesn’t, you adjust your prompt and repeat.

While that sounds easier than the old way, it’s not a replacement for knowing how to code. Turns out it’s faster, but only sometimes.

• Sometimes it’s obviously wrong.
• Sometimes it’s not so obviously wrong.
• Sometimes it hallucinates or it fools us.
• Sometimes we still end up wasting an afternoon chasing rabbits.
• Sometimes, with the right approach, we end up in fewer rabbit holes.

At any rate, you can see why it’s worth talking about in depth. So, come join us at Marina City on June 6th and share your AI experiences, techniques or surprising results.

This is an in-person meeting only. No video or audio recordings of the meeting will be made, published or shared online.

Before we start our open discussion, we’ll have a brief demonstration. I put up a new online message board to help CAFDA stay organized and grow. Spoiler alert - it’s 100% vibe coded. I wrote 0% of the underlying code myself. 😁

We will be meeting on the 20th floor of the East tower of the historic Marina City towers, overlooking the Chicago River. The meeting room will open at 9:15am for setup. Members and their guests can arrive as early as 9:30am to socialize. Then we will have our meeting from 10am to noon, with a break in the middle. At noon we will take the elevator up to the roof for a brief, 360 degree look at the skyline. Then, anyone who is interested can join us for lunch somewhere local.

This group is open to anyone who is interested in FileMaker. Bring questions for the group or some work you can show off if you want to. Be a wallflower or speak up, come to hang out or come to talk about FileMaker. All are welcome, regardless of skill level, expertise or experience.

HOW TO GET TO THE MEETING ROOM ON THE 20TH FLOOR OF THE EAST TOWER OF MARINA CITY (300 North State Street):

Getting yourself to a meeting downtown can be a fun and pleasant experience if you plan ahead.

METRA
If you are coming from the suburbs, taking the Metra train is recommended. Marina City is a 25-30 minute walk or a $10-12 cab ride from Ogilvie and Union stations. If you’re walking, cross the river and walk north on Wacker until it curves to the right (east). If the weather is nice, take the stairs down to the riverwalk to maximize your experience. Then, continue to follow the river to the east until you see two iconic buildings that look like giant corn cobs. The meeting is on the 20th floor of the East Tower, the building on the right.

DRIVING
If you would prefer to drive, discounted valet parking is available at $20 for 12 hours (Sully has passes). Use 300 N State St. as your destination in your preferred mapping app. Once there, pull into the large ramp upward toward the Hotel Chicago and House of Blues on the west side of State Street. Follow the yellow lines that curve left toward valet parking. Use any lane to pull up as far as you can toward the glass domed valet stand. Then, turn off your car and wait for an attendant.

CTA (the L)
The closest L stop is Clark and Lake. Find the river (north of the L stop), walk to it and look for the corn cobs.

Getting Inside The Building:
To enter the building, you must first go to the concourse. This can be confusing, as the concourse is below street level. There are three entrances to the concourse level.

• On State Street, at 300 N State, below street level.
• On Dearborn Street, at 323 N Dearborn, below street level.
• In the glass dome that houses the valet stand.

Once on the concourse level, look for the EAST tower security office. Tell the lobby guard you are here for a CAFDA meeting on the 20th floor. Be prepared to show a photo ID and sign into a guest book. Then, use any of the five elevators to go to the 20th floor.

STATE STREET EMERGENCY BRIDGE REPAIR
Additionally, please note that the State Street Bridge has been closed for emergency repairs since April. Both cars and pedestrians will not be allowed on the bridge until mid November. If you’re walking East along the river, use the Dearborn bridge and concourse entrance instead of State Street. Don’t just wait until you hit State Street and hope to cross there. No access! Pick another bridge. Access to Marina City’s valet parking is still open, albeit only by traveling through the intersection of State and Kinzie. Your destination address remains the same. Just be careful that your mapping app doesn’t try to route you over the closed bridge.