Regex Blaster
Comments
ks2048
progbits
They all have this rounded box design as well. I wonder where that came from, I don't think it was a predominant style before.
xg15
Recently asked Codex (GPT-5.2) to write a small single-page HTML frontend to debug some REST endpoints. As it was just a one-off tool, I put in no instructions about looks or styling at all. Lo and behold, the tool it wrote came with exactly that round-box style.
It seems to be the "default" style of some models for some reason.
Which makes me wonder if people already experimented with different style suggestions to get different results: "Make it look like an 1998 GeoCities page" / 2005 Facebook / Newgrounds / DeviantArt / HN / one of those Windows XP simulators with built-in window manager / etc
mrkramer
I vibe code web apps with Google's Gemini and I think it actually mimics Google's UI and UX because I see similarities between my vibe coded web apps and Google's web apps.
progbits
But that's a different style from the these colorful border rounded boxes that I think Claude in particular loves to produce.
flykespice
Every vibecoded site have this same dark look with shining hue-gradient borders, can't wait for the future the entire web be filled with this generic look
lofaszvanitt
And not playtested at all :D
mdp
This is fair, although I ask for it to be dark themed to match what I think was the style of typing game I remember growing up with (it's been a while). Bumped up the font though.
xnorswap
Next time please ask it to respect system dark/light mode preference, it's trivial to do, especially for an LLM which can spin up light/dark alternatives easily.
NooneAtAll3
no
considering free windows being light theme only, it should be a button, not a "system default"
zamadatix
By "free windows" do you just mean an unactivated copy of Windows? That doesn't prevent the user from configuring their preference in the browser itself.
xnorswap
There should be a button too, but it's simple to add a line so that it also defaults to any provided preference.
CamperBob2
That's fine, too. Either way, give the user the choice.
gdcbe
… is that even legal to do for microsoft? Are there no requirements to adhere to certain standards? Would have thought that is part of it.
btilly
My top complaint is that if I've successfully used a pattern, I want my text removed. I keep forgetting to backspace a bunch, then get frustrated that my pattern isn't working.
Other than that, great game!
christoph-heiss
And all the text is grey-on-grey and basically unreadable. Not to even mention accessibility.
bmm6o
Automated accessibility testing needs to be in your loop, whether you are using an llm or not. Aria labels are easy to get right but they are also easy to forget.
mchaver
I could envision the style even before clicking on the site.
PurpleRamen
Maybe because it 1337 hackerman-style, or something.
darkstar999
What evidence do you have that this is vibe coded?
flexagoon
Because it looks exactly the same and feels as janky as 99% of vibecoded web apps
efilife
He just can tell. Like you can tell when you are looking at a flower and can instantly name what it is. You can just tell
ks2048
Just based on vibes.
HanClinto
Nice game!
We made a similar game several years ago for the Pyweek game competition, but there wasn't the fun "letter invaders" style that this one has.
https://pyweek.org/e/RegExExpress/
I really like your implementation!
Might be good to limit some of the special operators to give more focus -- otherwise the early levels are a bit too solvable with ".*"
1-more
I don't understand the first "combat" level. There's no real defining pattern separating the good from bad hex strings, so it's just a typing speed contest to type all the enemy patterns, right? What am I missing?
Andoryuuta
As far as I can tell, the first combat level enemies all start with "ALERT-" and have exactly 3 digits.
1-more
sorry, second combat level. It's all 6 digit hex color strings, some good some bad.
Andoryuuta
Ah, I see. Yeah, that one definitely took me multiple attempts to see what it wanted.
I believe that the "enemies":
1. Must start with "#"
2. Must be exactly 6 hex digits
3. Must be lowercase
1-more
Ohhhhh I swore there were friendlies with lowercase too! Thank you!!
joshribakoff
I cant even read this because most of the text is outside my phones viewport. Please test your stuff before posting it here.
freedomben
Wow really cool! Genuinely fun, and educational at the same time.
One usability request: after firing a regex, could the text box be cleared? It's not hard to hit Ctrl+A and start typing again, but it does add a bit of friction. (I can send a PR)
ebergen
I played through the training level and it took me a minute to realize it's sub string/grep match. So in the first training level the pattern . matches everything when it feels like it should be .* to match all the characters of the enemies.
The UI looks great!
baud9600
Does not render correctly on iOS (mobile Safari)? It’s a fixed Desktop view and you can’t pinch to zoom as needed. It takes effort to prevent mobile users like this! Do others get this experience?
tyleo
I have this exact problem. Looks vibe coded with little testing :/
love2read
Really fun. I just wish that stats were saved in localhost (like combat mode progress) and that esc instantly ended the round if you know you will lose.
m0d0nne11
Cute. I had a crack at it but for me the fatal flaw is having to specifically delete the last regex before entering the next one, especially as the action gets tight. Each regex should go away once it's submitted, duh...
lasgawe
Haha, this is nice. I'm bad at regex most of the time. Playing this felt like when I first switched from Visual Studio to Vim. it’s a bit of a learning curve. It’s an interactive game btw
pimlottc
The colors are difficult for colorblind people. Orange/green is difficult already, and then green turns into red depending on the state? Ugh. Looks fun but unplayable for me.
JanisErdmanis
This is really funny ;D Gives Tetris vibes and is executed beautifully.
sublinear
The page width is not responsive and unusable on mobile
NooneAtAll3
I wish it wasn't time-limited...
trenchgun
Claude default frontend skills suck :D
mrkramer
This looks like something I would vibe code with Google's Gemini. Interesting concept.
UltraSane
cool idea but it needs to get slower as the levels get harder
SilentM68
Cool idea! I shall give it a try :)
brew-hacker
Fun interactive game!
mdp
TL;DR: I think you should still learn regex, even though AI has made it a "useless" skill
https://mdp.github.io/2026/03/17/the-kids-are-alright-and-th...
m3galinux
Not so useless. In my experience LLMs are about 50/50 on making a regex that actually works and covers the cases you asked it for. Even less when you get into cases needing advanced features like backreferences and lookahead.
littlekey
Anecdotal data point, writing and maintaining regex is still a core part of my job. Not useless at all for me :)
croes
A little bit early to tell.
Let’s wait how affordable, available and good AI is when the companies turn to profit maximization and enshittification begins
cachius
You can go local now with qwen 3.5 9B Q4 powering hermes agent at 35 to 50 tok/s with 99 percent tool call success rate on a used RTX 3060 for the price of two months of ChatGPT Pro and never bother. https://xcancel.com/sudoingX/status/2033020823846674546#m
This is the worst local AI will ever be. It only gets better from here. https://xcancel.com/sudoingX/status/2033959603944493192#m
croes
Nope, if nobody trains the models on new data you have at some point an outdated model.
Imagine Qwen 3.5 created in the 1990s and then use it for today web or desktop development.
And is the problem solved that training AI with AI code makes the AI worse? If not the "it only gets better" claim is questionable.
autoexec
> Nope, if nobody trains the models on new data you have at some point an outdated model.
As people train the models on new data they'll be increasingly training on AI output including hallucinations and slop. More garbage in means even more garbage out and the cycle will continue as "updated" models decline in quality.
neonsunset
[dead]
Every vibe coded site is too dark and the text is too small.