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)

2E Hidden Gem - Action Diagram PARMS

It's always nice to learn something new every day!

Today, whilst navigating a functions' action diagram, I was presented with the following screen showing numerous NLL fields.

Usually I page down looking for the field I wanted to view or update, and as you all know, on some files this can be quite cumbersome.  That is until I read a request in the 'Ideas' section from Broadcom's support portal. A user had requested a filter for NLL's or in Peter's parlance "Meaningless" :-)

I thought to myself, that's a neat idea I'll up vote it!!!!

After clicking the "Thumbs Up" button and anticipating the AI to build the feature and email me a PTF, I noticed that the idea had already been implemented......  I quickly fired up a 2E session and went looking for it!!!!

"Lo and behold" (The English equivalent of "Mamma Mia"), there it was, albeit slightly hidden.  You see the toggle is F15 and the label was stating "Undefined parms only" (First image).  However, the toggle is a triple toggle and a third option to remove the NuLLed fields was just another key press away!  

This little feature makes scanning for used data fields way easier.  What do you think?

On a side note, this also works for unentered fields during file maintenance or if PARMS have been added to a function.  The F15 options' initial toggle will show any unmapped fields.

Thanks for reading the Synon 2E and Plex Emporium by Lee Dare (A developer blog). 

Lee.

p.s. Perhaps I should start a hidden gems series in the blog.

IBM Documentation

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Thanks for reading the 

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

Lee.

p.s. Sorry I just couldn't resist.