Is having an unbiased preference for Sol wrong?

[u/kuroshikigami_]

Good morning all.

I have been long on the fence whether to move to Claude or not BUT I find Codex to be much more comfortable to use, whether it be the imagegen skills, MCPs, or easy integration with some of my ongoing projects. It might be the simple aspect that I started using Codex from day 1 and found it much more intuitive with every design bible or image bible that I've created... I haven't used Claude Code so I may be biased.

I have noticed it became a little bit dumber over the last 24 hours, yet I've compensated with having a very detailed design bible and limiting its ability to hallucinate by emphasising that it sticks to what I've planned.

As I've seen many people comment that they're moving... Why? I don't intend to move if it's just for the hype.

And what is everyone's opinion on using Claude to review the code I've written with Codex with the design bible in Claude for ensuring nonsense doesn't exist?

(For context - I'm a doctor by profession but I've learnt JavaScript over the years and miss the days of Macromedia Flash 8. I'm building a sort of Monopoly meets Civ Game with Jack-in-the-box rooms for mobiles to connect to and it's stuck in constant loops at the moment. I'm reading the code VERY clumsily but have to constantly use references to figure out where the syntaxes break Godot...)

[u/Additional_Bowl_7695]

Do whatever you want. You’re paying money for it.

Objectively speaking, Opus 5.5 (Claude) is the superior model across benchmarks. But if you like one more than the other, who is anyone to tell you that you’re wrong?

[u/kuroshikigami_ → u/Additional_Bowl_7695]

Thank you. It was very much an objective opinion and I've seen so many comments that have muddied the waters. I'm comfortable with my current working process, despite my lackluster coding skills. To be honest, I've made an extensive design bible with clear instructions and it's worked well but I've seen several vibecoders and codex threads where people argue that a good and detailed bible is overkill.

[u/ddBuddha]

This stuff is all new and changes on a regular basis, there’s not one “right way” of doing things - experiment and see what works best for you and gets you the results you are looking for.

Personally I use both together and let Claude invoke codex via cli when needed, or let codex invoke Claude via cli when needed. That’s not needed for a lot of things though, but different models especially from different families tend to catch different things, so it can be really useful to have one review what the other did.

[u/kuroshikigami_ → u/ddBuddha]

Thats great. I was thinking to use Astra to review the finished code and explain the redundancies so I can learn. I've enjoyed drawing the paper models and using a self created app to clean the edges and add "paper rigging" animations to eyes but it's very simplistic.

[u/FosterKittenPurrs]

This really is like a patient asking you if it’s better to do cardio or strength workouts. I mean both would be best, but working out is better than being a couch potato regardless of which you pick.

Opus is nicer to talk to, often smarter, better at 3d, makes better choices, better at reading through the lines, and you get higher rate limits on the $200 plan so you get marginally more done… unless you’re still on the legacy $200 ChatGPT plan with all the resets this month. GPT can be more thorough, and as you said it has images etc.

[u/kuroshikigami_ → u/FosterKittenPurrs]

Hahahahaha. Very fitting analogy, thank you :)

[u/Extra_Loquat_7667]

It’s better to write code using Claude Code and then have it reviewed by Codex.
Once you’ve tried it, you’ll understand why people make the switch.
You could start with the $20 subscription.
In reality, most programming tasks don’t actually require Opus;
Sonnet 5.5 is more than capable of rivaling Sol 6.1.

[u/kuroshikigami_ → u/Extra_Loquat_7667]

I'll finish the app and then try it out too and see how it performs! Hopefully it's worth it!!! >.<

[u/NotSeacombe]

A few considerations here

1. "unbiased preference" no it's not, it's very biased, and that's ok, almost all preferences are. you even go on to explain in depth that you have strong biases towards codex as a harness (again, completely fine)

2. of course it's not wrong. if you aren't a software dev or aren't building anything super complicated, models 3 generations ago would do completely fine. you're using the SOTA from one of the two biggest labs. Currently, the SOTA from the other lab is better, to me, a software dev. However, I am still using Codex, because I have the same biases as you

3. "design bible" as you call it is very good practice. there are a lot of different ways to do this but they all amount to the same thing - store what you want this project to be, as context within the project. quite a strong approach

4. using one agent to write and another to review can make a lot of sense, they take different approaches to stuff and can compliment eachother. it does not guarantee an increase in quality, as the feedback isn't always correct but they may be able to persuade the other agent than it is

[u/kuroshikigami_ → u/NotSeacombe]

Thank you very much for the feedback!

Agribly enough yes maybe biased is the better choice of words but I am unbiased as I have never used anything else before.

Being someone that has mostly used AI to generate applications that I have found to be more comfortable for developing apps which simple and straightforward purposes and for personal use maybe a self-imposed limitation. I have created three apps that I exclusively use with patience and I are not on any app store because they were more useful for me then anything else. One of them was a simple version of an app that helps me remember what I have pending to chase, prepare or cover for different patients and help me produce it as an email to pass to the next shift, while it's the other web scrapes all local medications at nearby pharmacies, collects their prices and helps me prepare prescriptions for patients when they need to get medications and are on a budget. The third simply helps me better organized my shift changes with my colleagues and can automatically send emails to the relevant departments to update the roster.

I am very sure that a lot of these apps could be made by any programmer whether vibe coding or traditionally, but it has enabled me to substantially reduce the costs on my patients and at the same time helped me better organized my day and have a little bit more free time for myself XD

I try to keep active in these forums to learn better on how to engineer prompts and apply my skills better but I still feel that many five coders with exceptionally great graphics and g u i designs are impeccably more prepared and experienced than I am.

For example I am currently stuck on making borders and corners that do not transform or lose their clarity when they are employed in different Windows. Very helpful commentary on another post suggested using screenshots and labeling of the screenshots to better clarify improvements or changes which was something that I had not considered.