In today's fast-paced world, software development has become a critical part of every business. As a result, many developers are constantly seeking new tools and technologies to improve their productivity and make their work easier. One such tool that has recently gained popularity is OpenAI's ChatGPT. In this blog post, I will share my journey and experience of writing software with the help of ChatGPT.

My wife needed a simple solution to convert URLs into QR codes and avoid using online QR code generators. I took on the task of building a service that would meet her requirements: a website with an input field for a URL and a button to submit, which would validate the input and present a QR code of the URL if it was well-formatted. I knew that I could write this service from scratch, but I wanted to see how ChatGPT could help me.

I posted the requirements to ChatGPT and asked it to create a skeleton for the service. Within seconds, I received a complete and concise response, which included all the necessary steps to get started, including setting up a new project using Express.js and TypeScript, adding dependencies for URL validation and QR code generation, and implementing the input field and button for the website.

I followed the steps provided by ChatGPT and found that the implementation was straightforward to understand. I made a few tweaks and improvements to the code, such as adding error handling and parsing the request body, and ChatGPT helped me troubleshoot any issues I encountered.

Once I had completed the implementation, I started the service, and it was up and running smoothly. My wife was able to use the service to convert URLs into QR codes, and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance and speed of the service.

In conclusion, writing software with the help of ChatGPT was a fantastic experience. It allowed me to quickly understand the requirements and provided me with a concise and accurate implementation guide. I was able to write the service efficiently and effectively, and it was a great time-saver. The service is available on my GitHub account at github.com/sthoelscher/url-2-qrcode for anyone who wants to see the code or use it for their purposes.

I hope this blog post has helped showcase the benefits and ease of using ChatGPT for writing software, even for simple solutions like converting URLs into QR codes. I would highly recommend ChatGPT to any software developer looking to improve their productivity and save time. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting, I encourage you to try it out and see the results for yourself.