kylemacomber (u/kylemacomber)

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

spike021 · 2 days ago

Would you consider having a way to export work done in this app to be included as part of regular Xcode projects?

I've been working on a project and sometimes when I'm away from my laptop I have ideas I want to try in SwiftUI but only have my phone on me. What I end up doing is just writing my idea in text and then waiting till I'm back at my desk to give it a shot. Being able to spin up a quick prototype and preview it on the go could be cool.

I don't think my dog would enjoy me lugging my laptop on our walks but my phone is no big deal ;).

kylemacomber · a day ago

Totally! I have the same use case when I’m, say, at the park supervising my kids.

You can export your entire project as a single swift file from the share sheet. This makes it pretty straightforward to import the code into an Xcode project when you’re back at your Mac

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

debdut · 2 days ago

This is crazy, you guys basically rebuilt Swift (interpreter instead of compiler) and also the frameworks. This is the level of engineering that does the magic of "it just works". I, personally, am very interested in swift, and would love to work for free for you guys.

kylemacomber · a day ago

One clarification: we did not rebuild any of the frameworks. As quickly as possible, the interpreter calls out to the compiled frameworks in the OS. So Bitrig is calling into the real SwiftUI, the real Foundation, the real MapKit, etc.

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

codruterdei · 2 days ago

That’s great and I’m glad you feel good here. I think it’s time for you to share what you found over the years on HN with us. Your curated list, if you will.

kylemacomber · a day ago

This isn't exhaustive, but quickly top of my head:

- How to Win Friends and Influence People — This was really eye opening to me and helped me more productively engage in a large organization like Apple.

- Sam Harris's podcast — I'm always interested to hear his takes on the controversial topics of the day as well as more philosophical and philanthropic ones.

- The Knowledge Project podcast — I don't listen to this as much anymore but a few years ago I was a regular listener.

- Simon Willison’s blog — The highest signal to noise way I've found to stay up to date with developments in AI.

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

zahirbmirza · 2 days ago

This app is really quite fascinating as well as amazing. I have been using it for a week now. I do like how it is so good with Swift and iOS; you have done a great job of removing so much of the confusion that LLMs must face when trying to develop for a demanding platform. The API insight the app has is a testament to your deep background and foresight into iOS development. I really love this.

Also, I have been taking the code and advice from Bitrig into Cursor, because it solves problems Cursor struggles with no matter what model it calls.

Your work is empowering, but more than that, it is inspiring, because I can now start to envisage what computer human interaction will look like in the near future.

You have taken away a layer of complexity to creation and that is to be applauded. I think your work is a landmark. I think Bitrig will unleash a new era of creative expression. I wish that I was part of your team.

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

Wow that's really high praise. Thank you.

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

markden · 2 days ago

Your secret is safe, hah! It's almost like you need an intermediate 'cheap/dumb' AI as a proxy to flesh everything out ahead of sending it off to be coded ... something that crisps up all the requirement and ultimately crafts a more cost-effective and likely all-around-better prompt. Even being semi-technical, I'm always surprised how much the details matter when describing something to AI (e.g., the fireworks should only explode _outward_, not inward, lol). Thanks!

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

There's a lot I want to do to improve the prompting experience. As I mentioned in the original post, it's very simple right now.

There's a lot of inspiration we could (and probably will) draw from other products (e.g. Cline's Plan vs Act modes) to build what you're describing.

It can also be really fun and productive to just rapidly iterate on what the AI gives back, without having to take the time to describe it all up front. Sometimes this approach can lead to a new directions you might not have thought of.

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

markden · 2 days ago

First, as a non-developer geek -- super fun.

What happens if you go over 100 messages/month?

I just burned my 5 free messages to get a simple toggle button working that just says "win" (with animated fireworks!) and "lose". I'm sure I'm not an efficient prompter, but it seems I'd knock out 100 messages easily in an afternoon, which looks to be the monthly limit at $20/mo.

(This is coming from someone who has no idea how expensive it would be to 'vibe code' using something like Claude ... so it may be an entirely unfair assumption that you could chat with this 'unlimited' for $20/mo ... that's what I have in my head as 'reasonable' only because that's what I pay for Gemini or ChatGPT and, for all intents and purposes, it feels 'unlimited'.)

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

Don't tell anyone, but once you're on the paid plan we're not actually enforcing the 100 message limit right now ;)

We're still in the learning phase, and are going to adjust the plans based on exactly the kind of considerations you're raising

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

WhitneyLand · 2 days ago

Hey Kyle, looks very cool!

- If Bitrig can do things like let your app have editable data, or make rest api calls, etc. it would be nice to see a little more in the demo video.

- Sounds like you don’t have an expensive mic/studio for recording, but luckily this is free and can work wonders for your audio: https://podcast.adobe.com/en/enhance

Best of luck with the launch.

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

Ya, I agree it makes sense for us to record a more tutorial length demo at this point and we can show off things like that.

Thanks for the tip about the mic. Fun fact: it's me in the video, but it's Jacob doing the narration :P

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

fragmede · 2 days ago

I'm on an iPhone SE, and the UI doesn't quite fit. The response text isn't easily scrollable, so I have to drag the text up, instead of just scrolling.

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

Thanks for the heads up. I confess, I did not test it on an SE. We'll take a look!

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

ForceBru · 2 days ago

I'm imagining quick prototyping (including on-device, offline execution) of small pieces of code (potentially growing into a small app) with the software keyboard, like in Pythonista or Pyto.

My workflow often goes like this: got an idea, let me quickly test it on the go, like while walking down the street, working on unrelated stuff or just chilling. Open up Pythonista, write some code, run it, tweak it, etc. If a piece of code becomes important enough, I copy it to the computer and continue working on it there.

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

Cool, that's really helpful context. We'll take a look at the code editing experience in those apps for inspiration.

kylemacomber commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber

ForceBru · 2 days ago

Are there iOS apps that let me create native Swift apps for my phone (including execution on my device, not in the cloud), on my phone, but _without_ chatting to AI? Just by writing code, the "old" way?

kylemacomber · 2 days ago

You can edit the code directly in Bitrig, but we haven't optimized the experience around that.

Are you imagining you'd be editing the code with the software keyboard or a paired hardware keyboard?