I’ve mentioned before that I’ve gotten into 3D printing since I got the Bambu P1S. Well, one of the things that comes with owning a couple of 3D printers is a growing pile of filament spools, and no good way to keep track of what you have, what you’ve used, and what you need to buy more of. I tried an existing tool called Spoolman, but it just didn’t have the features I needed.
So I decided to build my own.
Here’s the thing: I’m not new to this. Back when I was in the business world I programmed databases using Microsoft Visual FoxPro, and I wrote SQL code for DB2 on an IBM mainframe. And way back when the web first started, back when it was just plain HTML, I built the first website for a motor speedway anywhere in the country and kept it running for five years. So, it’s not that I’ve never coded. It’s that I never kept up with all the web languages that came along after that.
What Vibe Coding Actually Is
The short version: instead of writing code yourself line by line, you describe what you want in plain English to an AI assistant, and it writes the code for you. You don’t need to know a programming language. You don’t need a computer science degree. You just need to be able to explain what you want, clearly enough, and be willing to go back and forth when something isn’t quite right.
That’s basically all I did. I told the AI I wanted a way to track my filament, including things it didn’t originally have, like spare parts inventory for the printers themselves and a maintenance log. I described how my spreadsheet was organized, since that’s where all my original data lived. And piece by piece, it built the thing.
What Kind of Stuff Can Be Vibe Coded
Just about anything, honestly. Small utility apps like mine. Dashboards. Simple games. Websites. Tools to organize a hobby, a collection, a small business’s orders. If you can describe it, there’s a decent chance it can be built this way. It won’t replace a real software engineer building something complex and mission-critical, but for a guy who just wants a database to track his filament spools and eventually a list of parts for print projects that need things like lamp bases and bulbs, it’s more than enough.
Who Can Do It
Anybody, really. That’s the part that surprised me the most. You don’t need any technical background. You need patience, and you need to be willing to test things, notice when something’s broken, and describe the problem well enough that it can get fixed. It’s a lot like being a project manager instead of a coder. You’re not writing the code, but you’re steering it.
My Final Word
I’ve still got work to do on mine. The system needs some revisions, and I’ve got a spreadsheet full of filament purchases waiting to get folded back in once I refactor things. I did take Fortran, COBOL, and BASIC classes back in college in the late ’70s, so maybe there’s an old programmer in me somewhere after all. But for a hobby project put together mostly by describing what I wanted rather than writing it myself, I’d call it a success.
Anyway, that’s my two cents.
