[HN Gopher] Regex Blaster
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Regex Blaster
Author : mdp
Score : 140 points
Date : 2026-03-17 21:00 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (mdp.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (mdp.github.io)
| mdp wrote:
| 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...
| croes wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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| some point an outdated model.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 wrote:
| > 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| at some point an outdated model.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.
| m3galinux wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Anecdotal data point, writing and maintaining regex is still a
| core part of my job. Not useless at all for me :)
| HanClinto wrote:
| 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
| ".*"
| ks2048 wrote:
| Every vibe coded site is too dark and the text is too small.
| progbits wrote:
| 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.
| mrkramer wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| But that's a different style from the these colorful border
| rounded boxes that I think Claude in particular loves to
| produce.
| xg15 wrote:
| 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
| mdp wrote:
| 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.
| btilly wrote:
| 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!
| xnorswap wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| no
|
| considering free windows being light theme only, it should
| be a button, not a "system default"
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| That's fine, too. Either way, give the user the choice.
| xnorswap wrote:
| There should be a button too, but it's simple to add a
| line so that it also defaults to any provided preference.
| zamadatix wrote:
| 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.
| gdcbe wrote:
| ... 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.
| love2read wrote:
| what would the requirement be? "thou must provide the
| full paid service to those who do not pay"?
| darkstar999 wrote:
| What evidence do you have that this is vibe coded?
| flexagoon wrote:
| Because it looks exactly the same and feels as janky as 99%
| of vibecoded web apps
| ks2048 wrote:
| Just based on vibes.
| christoph-heiss wrote:
| And all the text is grey-on-grey and basically unreadable. Not
| to even mention accessibility.
| flykespice wrote:
| 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
| PurpleRamen wrote:
| Maybe because it 1337 hackerman-style, or something.
| mchaver wrote:
| I could envision the style even before clicking on the site.
| lofaszvanitt wrote:
| And not playtested at all :D
| brew-hacker wrote:
| Fun interactive game!
| SilentM68 wrote:
| Cool idea! I shall give it a try :)
| freedomben wrote:
| 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)
| freedomben wrote:
| Source code!: https://github.com/mdp/regex-blaster
| mrkramer wrote:
| This looks like something I would vibe code with Google's Gemini.
| Interesting concept.
| JanisErdmanis wrote:
| This is really funny ;D Gives Tetris vibes and is executed
| beautifully.
| 1-more wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| As far as I can tell, the first combat level enemies all start
| with "ALERT-" and have exactly 3 digits.
| 1-more wrote:
| sorry, second combat level. It's all 6 digit hex color
| strings, some good some bad.
| Andoryuuta wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Ohhhhh I swore there were friendlies with lowercase too!
| Thank you!!
| schiem wrote:
| There are, just not lowercase characters that are valid
| hex.
| joshribakoff wrote:
| I cant even read this because most of the text is outside my
| phones viewport. Please test your stuff before posting it here.
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| I wish it wasn't time-limited...
| lasgawe wrote:
| 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
| sublinear wrote:
| The page width is not responsive and unusable on mobile
| UltraSane wrote:
| cool idea but it needs to get slower as the levels get harder
| pimlottc wrote:
| 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.
| baud9600 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I have this exact problem. Looks vibe coded with little testing
| :/
| love2read wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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...
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(page generated 2026-03-20 23:00 UTC)