# Testing Claude for Swift and JavaScript Coding Questions

DevFeed: [Testing Claude for Swift and JavaScript Coding Questions](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/a-swim-with-a-chat-bot-35508.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://meowni.ca/posts/chatty-mcchatface/>)

Author: Monica Dinculescu

Published: 2024-09-29T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Monica Dinculescu](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/monica-dinculescu.md>)

Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [Claude](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude.md>), [Swift](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/swift.md>), [Stack Overflow](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/stackoverflow.md>), [JavaScript](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/javascript.md>), [CSS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/css.md>), [HTML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/html.md>), [WebView](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/webview.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [claude](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [html](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html.md>), [javascript](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/javascript.md>), [prompt-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/prompt-engineering.md>), [stack-overflow](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/stack-overflow.md>), [swift](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/swift.md>), [webview](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webview.md>)

## AI overview

The author describes mixed experiences using AI chatbots, especially Claude.ai, for coding help. Claude was useful for Swift syntax and JavaScript tasks, but unreliable answers in unfamiliar areas could take longer to verify than using Stack Overflow.

## Source excerpt

I have 4 (rounded up) beefs with language-y AI bots that have resulted in me sort of avoiding them altogether: They have the personality of a middle manager who writes Google Docs all day that nobody wants to read They're reallllly good at guessing but not actually that smart, which leads to very convincing lies (see: the "how many Rs in strawberry?" saga). If I had the inclination to double check all the bot's work, I would've just done it myself Absolutely no thank you to the scam that is "prompt engineering". I'm not wasting 17 demon invocations to convince Chat GPT to do a thing. That's not the future I was promised. (not their fault) I have unresolved trauma about generated code from the Microsoft FrontPage era Testing the waters Unrelated to bots, I've been recently faffing about on a Swift app, with exactly zero prior knowledge of Swift. I basically have to Google everything (what's up with the mad ForEach syntax????) to get to a Stack Overflow page that isn't the one I actually need because search results have gotten sloppy, and it takes a minute. None of the things I'm copy pasting are "hard"; they're tedious code I can write in other languages but not in this one. And not to be a jerk, but 1-1 code translation isn't what I want to spend my spare time on. A friend told me to try Claude.ai, and it worked reasonably well for what I asked of it, which was mostly syntax (how do I add internal padding to a TextField?). I tried it for some harder questions with mixed results: how do I make links inside a WebView not open a native app? was a mess, but why do you think a page of just inputs is really slow gave me the right idea for where to start spelunking. The problem with trying it on a language I'm not an expert in goes back to Beef #2 above - I can't spot the very convincing lies as easily, and then I spend extra time trying to figure out if I copied it wrong or the answer is wrong (which is what happened with the WebView question), and it takes longer than if