Behind the Curtain (new site)

The journey from the old blogger site (currently still maintained) to this new one started off as a vibe coding experiment.  This has been extensively documented on the site, just search lovable (topics/labels) and you'll see all the related articles.

There is lots to the site with articles, topics, sitemap (yeah press F14, like you do in 2E for a little easter egg).

Supporting this, I also had to build out a fully functioning CMS (still work in progress but I've enough to showcase here).  

But before we pull back the curtain, first a couple of features you may not see at first glance.

Feature 1

First of all there is the search box.  Press / on a keyboard (Desktop) or select search from the top menu and you can search the entire site.

Feature 2

You can now get hold of me a little easier, from within the site if LinkedIn is not your dang.

Behind the scenes - part 1

A complete message and blog management CMS portal.  View and delete your incoming messages, import blog pages from old site, create new (exclusive content), view HTML, Live preview, set to live, set relevant meta data.

Behind the scenes - part 2

WYSIWYG editor, 5250 in style, colour palette selection support, image upload.

Behind the scenes - part 3

Set the publish date of the blog, by far my favourite element of the entire site.  The 5250 date picker.  Retro heaven.

There are many other super cool features etc and way too many for a single blog post.  Auto Sitemap, SEO, Image management, save assist, deep linking, AI search friendly, 5250 scroll bars, 404, Desktop, Table and iPhone readiness, Camera roll uploading, post sharing, RSS.........  And I've still got a few more things to implement.

I have plenty of plans to grow the entire eco-system and I truly welcome ideas, content requests, content and tips sharing.  I'll credit the donating source.  i.e. David my mate in NZ, recommend the F7/F8 (Previous/next) support from within a blog post.

Thanks for reading the 

Synon 2E and Plex Emporium by Lee Dare (A developer blog). 

Lee.

News from Broadcom Today.

News from Broadcom today.

2E has been certified on Power 11 hardware to IBMi o/s level 7.5 and 7.6

No excuse not to keep current and keep those support agreements up to date.

I've decided to do a blog about some of the features in the new versions in the coming weeks.....

Thanks for reading the 

Synon 2E and Plex Emporium by Lee Dare (A developer blog). 

Lee.

New site using Lovable AI

When I first started my no code (vibing) journey I was very very sceptical.

Now, after a few months.  I am a convert.  Some might say with the amount I go on about the blog in the office, that I am an evangelist now (or at least a pain in the arse)....

The journey was quite simple, research and choose a tool.  There are dozens to try Replit, Lovable, Emergent, Bolt, Base44 and Bubble to name a few, not to mention the more code based alternatives like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor (now owned by Elon).

If you looked at all of these tools, you'd still not really scratch the surface with what is out there.  As I embark on the journey of discovery, my mind is blown every single day and the opportunities appear endless.

I ended up choosing lovable as YouTube reviews were largely positive, it allowed custom domain and has an integration stack that allowed GitHub, hence you aren't 100% tied into their ecosystem and have full access to the code.

Once I had launched the site I then went back and worked out how much, time and money is cost me to refactor.  The graph below (directly from the portal in lovable) shows my usage spike.

You'll notice that to begin with I was using the free tier credits.  You get five credits to use over a maximum of six days in any given month.  This is more than enough to get something up and running.  For example, the OG prompt of 'refactor this the old site' was completed on the first day.

This chart shows my usage and you will clearly see the day I decided to sign up to a paid tier and unlock more credits.

I could have completed the entire project on the free plan and had it hosted on a lovable domain and this post would have been another few months away or into 2027.  There are NO features on the site that are not 100% supported by the free tier.

This second chart shows the free credits that I used.  The paid plan does give 5 free credits per day and a chosen monthly allowance.  I went with 100 credits pm for 22 quid.

In total you will see that at launch the site had required 330 credits of which 137 were free tier or the daily allowance.  This is smart IMHO, A small edit should't feel like you are being charged every time.

You will see that some days where I had more spare time I ramped up my usage to several hours per day.

Summary

Actual cost = 52.00 pounds.

Time and Effort (I reckon about 5 working days including study (videos).

If you had asked me could if I redevelop an entire site including a CMS management backend (see next post) for 52.00 nicker I would have said you were insane.  Add to this, the fact that the tool also allowed me to express creative side with the 5250 look 'n feel.  I would have laughed you out of the room.  Not any more, you have my ear!

What do you think?

Thanks for reading the 

Synon 2E and Plex Emporium by Lee Dare (A developer blog). 

Lee.

New domain, same content, better look?

I mentioned in the last blog post that I wanted to reskin the blog.  Also, that I wasn't happy that Google was failing to index my site.

Suspecting it was an aging template or a.n.other technical factor with Blogger/Google that I didn't have the skills, and after a year trying, the desire to resolve, vibe coding seemed to me to be the best way forward.

Sceptical was my default viewpoint before this process.

Amazed is my current thinking.

60 days and endless Youtube videos later, was all it took to change my mindset.

If you care to click the link below you will be taken to the new site. 

https://plex2e.leedare.com

This was vibe coded over the last couple of months mainly using FREE credits.  Eventually I got so caught up in this that I paid a subscription and went fully in.

I hope you like the Look 'n Feel.  A considerable about of effort from myself and www.lovable.com was used to get this as it is.  Thanks to the people who did some testing. the feedback was appreciated.

And don't worry too much.  This old site isn't going away, nor is the content.  I imported the existing posts and I can import upcoming ones whenever I like.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks for reading the 

Synon 2E and Plex Emporium by Lee Dare (A developer blog). Lee.

Retro Vibes and the Rise of the New CASE Age

I’ve been digging through the archives recently. While pondering a style refresh for this blog, I found myself searching for the exact vivid colour scheme used for the classic Synon manuals and diskettes back in the day.  

That trip down memory lane reminded me of a post I wrote way back in 2010: A Retro Look Back. 

https://leedare-plex2e.blogspot.com/2010/07/retro-look-back.html

Looking at those original hues now... wow. You might need sunglasses for this one! They are incredibly vibrant—and perhaps a little too garish for the modern update I have in mind—but time will tell.

(Side note: I’m also looking to co-host away from Google soon. No matter what I try, the site isn't indexing properly, which I suspect is a legacy Blogger template issue I've been battling for a year. Stay tuned for moving plans!)

Re-reading that 2010 post, something specific caught my eye. Near the end, I predicted an uptake in "code generation tools." At the time, my mind went to snippet generation, CRUD automation, basic auto-complete improvements, and deeper code generation within CA Plex and Synon 2E.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the current boom in AI-centric development. Tools like Lovable, Cursor, Claude, and Base44 that are achieving staggering levels of abstraction.

It makes you wonder: with business users now able to describe what they want and watch systems generate in real-time, are we finally witnessing the true realisation of what the Synon pioneers dreamed of in the 80s and 90s? The ultimate promise of CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) might just have become our daily reality.

Thanks for reading,
Lee
The Synon 2E and Plex Emporium (A Developer Blog)