Training the AI to write better LiveCode

[Geoff Canyon]

So just now I put this in to chatgpt:

"fizz bin" is a program that counts from 1 to 100, replacing every number
divisible by 5 with "fizz" and every number divisible by 7 with "bin"; and
numbers divisible by both 5 and 7 with "fizz bin". Write code in the
programming language livecode to execute "fizz bin"

This is what ChatGPT responded with:

repeat with x = 1 to 100
    if x mod 5 = 0 and x mod 7 = 0 then
        put "fizz bin"
    else if x mod 5 = 0 then
        put "fizz"
    else if x mod 7 = 0 then
        put "bin"
    else
        put x
    end if
end repeat

That works as-is, but obviously the results fly by in the message box. So I
put a field and a button on a card, and edited to this, and it works
perfectly:

on mouseUp
   repeat with x = 1 to 100
      if x mod 5 = 0 and x mod 7 = 0 then
         put "fizz bin" & cr after fld 1
      else if x mod 5 = 0 then
         put "fizz" & cr after fld 1
      else if x mod 7 = 0 then
         put "bin" & cr after fld 1
      else
         put x & cr after fld 1
      end if
   end repeat
end mouseUp

Then as I was typing this email I realized I was potentially selling
chatgpt short, so I put this in:

Modify that code so it works as an "on mouseUp" handler in a button, and
concatenates the results on individual lines, and puts the final result
into the field "display"

And it output this:


on mouseUp
   put "" into fizzbin
   repeat with x = 1 to 100
      if x mod 5 = 0 and x mod 7 = 0 then
          put "fizz bin" & return after fizzbin
      else if x mod 5 = 0 then
          put "fizz" & return after fizzbin
      else if x mod 7 = 0 then
          put "bin" & return after fizzbin
      else
          put x & return after fizzbin
      end if
   end repeat
   put fizzbin into field "display"
end mouseUp

And it followed that with instructions:

This code uses the "on mouseUp" handler to execute the script when the
button is clicked. The results are concatenated and separated by a new line
using the "& return" operator after each output. The final result is placed
into a field with the name "display" using the "put" command.

I'll save you the trouble: that code executes perfectly right out of the
box, with no errors, and of course even though I didn't ask it to, it uses
a variable to store the intermediate values, saving the field update for
the end.

If I were writing it, I'd probably do something like

on mouseUp
   put "" into fizzbin
   repeat with x = 1 to 100
      if x mod 5 = 0 then put "fizz " after fizzbin
      if x mod 7 = 0 then put "bin " after fizzbin
      if char -1 of fizzbin is space
          then put return into char -1 of fizzbin
          else put x & return after fizzbin
   end repeat
   put fizzbin into field "display"
end mouseUp

That might be a bit faster, but probably not as clear.

Finally, I gave it the input:

Now rewrite the code to be a function named "fizzbin" that takes an
argument "n", repeats with 1 to n, and returns the results.

function fizzbin n
   put "" into fizzbin
   repeat with x = 1 to n
      if x mod 5 = 0 and x mod 7 = 0 then
          put "fizz bin" & return after fizzbin
      else if x mod 5 = 0 then
          put "fizz" & return after fizzbin
      else if x mod 7 = 0 then
          put "bin" & return after fizzbin
      else
          put x & return after fizzbin
      end if
   end repeat
   return fizzbin
end fizzbin

This works perfectly, and chat gpt also documents its answer:

This code defines a function named "fizzbin" which takes an argument "n"
that determines the range of the repeat loop. The function builds the
result string in a variable "fizzbin" and return the final result. The
calling script can then use the returned value for further processing or
for displaying in a field.

Grammatical issue notwithstanding, that's good documentation.