Vibe Coding, Cursor Vs Windsurf, Firefox Did What?!

What is HTML All The Things?

HTML All The Things is a web development podcast and discord community which was started by Matt and Mike, developers based in Ontario, Canada.

The podcast speaks to web development topics as well as running a small business, self-employment and time management. You can join them for both their successes and their struggles as they try to manage expanding their Web Development business without stretching themselves too thin.

What’s This One About?

Dive into the comeback of Web News as we discuss popular AI coding tools, the new “vibe coding” trend, and Firefox’s new TOS changes. Coding with AI has become commonplace over the past couple years with consumer tools like ChatGPT showing off their coding competence. As professional developers adopt AI into the workplace they may start with ChatGPT, but will likely adopt coding-specific tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Windsurf. Vibe Coding is a new trend where you fire up an AI assistant and let it do the coding work for you through human language prompts – opening up rapid prototyping for experienced developers and helping newbies have their ideas realized (to some extent). Firefox has made headlines recently regarding changes to their TOS regarding privacy – are they still the “privacy browser” that many users trusted them to be?

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Show Notes

Web News is back! For this episode we focused on topic 1 & 2, but the others also made an appearance!

1. AI Developer Tool Arms Race

• Rapid Innovation:
  • Companies are racing to integrate advanced AI into developer tools—from smart code completion and bug fixing to automated documentation.
• Major Players & Ecosystem:
  • Tools like GitHub Copilot, OpenAI’s latest models, and emerging platforms like Cursor and WIndsurf.
• Productivity & Cost:
  • These tools promise huge boosts in productivity while reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks—but they also spark debates about job displacement and technical debt.
• Integration & Future Impact:
  • As AI tools become more embedded in IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, expect a fundamental shift in development workflows.

2. Vibe Coding

• What Is Vibe Coding?
  • Coined by Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding is an AI-assisted method where you “speak” your ideas in natural language and let the AI generate the code.
• Accessibility & Speed:
  • It opens up programming to newcomers and speeds up prototyping, as users can rapidly iterate without deep syntax knowledge.
• Tools & Techniques:
  • Platforms like Cursor Composer, Replit Agent, and similar AI tools form the backbone of this trend.
• Potential Pitfalls:
  • Relying too heavily on AI may lead to issues in debugging, hidden technical debt, and a gap in understanding core programming concepts.

3.  React Router v7

• Modernized Routing:
  • React Router v7 merges many features from Remix (like server rendering and static site generation) into a unified routing solution.
• Enhanced Developer Experience:
  • Improved type safety (with new typegen), smoother non-breaking upgrade paths from v6, and deeper integration with modern tools (such as Vite) make building full-stack React apps easier.
• File-Based & Config-Based Options:
  • Developers can choose between file-based routing and configuration-based routes, depending on their project needs.
• Performance & Scalability:
  • New optimizations in data loading, code splitting, and handling pending states improve overall application performance.

4. Firefox TOS Changes

• Recent Update:
  • Firefox’s new Terms of Service now include language that grants Mozilla a broad, nonexclusive license to use information input via the browser. It did revert some of the language and made a clarification that it does not put ownership of that data to Mozilla but the damage seem to be done. 
  • Another change has been that in the FAQ they no longer state they will not sell your data
• Privacy Concerns:
  • Many users are uneasy about the vague wording, which appears reminiscent of Big Tech practices regarding data use.
  • Even with revised language Mozilla still has the rights to process your data and use it for things like ads
• Clarifications & Backlash:
  • Mozilla has clarified that it does not “own” your data and that the terms are meant to facilitate browser functionality—but critics remain skeptical.
• Impact on User Trust:
  • The debate centers on maintaining user privacy versus ensuring a free and functional browser.

5. TypeScript Doom

• The Project Overview:
  • Developer Dimitri Mitropoulos managed to run the classic game Doom entirely within TypeScript’s type system—a playful yet monumental engineering feat.
• Technical Challenges:
  • The project involved processing trillions of type instantiations and required a year-long effort, pushing TypeScript’s type system to its limits.
  • This requires a ridiculous amount of processing, 177TB of TypeScript types
  • To render 1 single (first frame) it could take as long as 12 days and then 1-12 hours for each frame after that
• Demonstrating Meta-Programming:
  • It’s a striking example of using types not just for error checking but as a computational layer to “compute” an entire game.
• Practical vs. Theoretical:
  • While it’s not a practical way to build games, it showcases the sheer power (and sometimes absurdity) of modern type systems.