The latest articles on DEV Community by Jeffrey Sanchez (@highdesertapps). https://dev.to/highdesertapps https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4023043%2F6ca0f7e1-e97b-4699-b02b-c81c659f20e2.jpeg https://dev.to/highdesertapps en Jeffrey Sanchez Fri, 10 Jul 2026 23:14:04 +0000 https://dev.to/highdesertapps/6-months-for-sentence-lab-5h7p https://dev.to/highdesertapps/6-months-for-sentence-lab-5h7p <p>I've been hacking away on Sentence Lab for 6 months now, and I'm very happy with where it's at in terms of features and usability. Initially I was just trying to create a tool to help with constructing sentences in Spanish, which I did, and then it kept evolving into what is now a language learning app with features rivaling much more established learning apps. I've been fairly slow to market it, but I did cross 600 members a few weeks ago, and I see increasing engagement as I continue to polish and add more features and fix bugs. It's all very rewarding!</p> <p>Features include: sentence translations from beginner to advanced levels, many different flashcard categories of vocabulary, reading stories with audio, conversations + scenarios, grammar lessons, cheat sheets for various popular topics, custom content support (upload your own flashcards and phrases), current news translated to Spanish, detailed progress statistics, daily lesson plans... it's all very flexible too (practice your way if you want).</p> <p>My near-term goals going forward are: much more serious marketing, along with continued cosmetic improvements on some pages, and bug fixing as the need arises. I welcome any feedback and suggestions you may have for this project.</p> webdev sass Jeffrey Sanchez Thu, 09 Jul 2026 22:40:37 +0000 https://dev.to/highdesertapps/my-results-for-an-ai-building-challenge-on-almost-no-budget-1fek https://dev.to/highdesertapps/my-results-for-an-ai-building-challenge-on-almost-no-budget-1fek <p>I've been building projects I find interesting with AI tools since the beginning of the year, and lately I've been focusing on increasingly complex software, partially just as a challenge to myself, and partially to determine at what point the AI tools start to fail in the area of software development. For a recent project, I picked an intentionally too-ambitious goal: can I recreate most of a complex business application (in this case, Excel) in a week, for less than $100? How far can I actually get on that?</p> <p>After planning it out pretty thoroughly with Claude, and brainstorming some additional AI enhanced features (e.g. plain english explanations for complex formulas and error diagnostics), I started on the implementation using the most recent Opus model. The bulk of that work only took a few days, with a few additional days of testing and polishing. I'm pretty happy with the results (the name HolySheet occurred to me and seemed pretty apt, so I went with that)... you can check it out for yourself here: <a href="https://www.holysheet.dev" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.holysheet.dev</a> </p> <p>I was able to build out most of the spreadsheet basics you'd expect (file manipulation, formulas, rich cell formatting and styling) as well as pivot tables and charts, multiple sheets, etc. I don't want to just do a feature dump here in this post, but the app is pretty full featured.</p> <p>Anyway, it does make me wonder where all the token spend I hear about in the tech news is actually going... like if one person can create a useful, complex business app in a few days for something like $50, what exactly are companies spending $500M on? Honestly it's a bit baffling. (I realize this is simplifying things, but I think my point is still valid.)</p> <p>At any rate, I welcome any feedback and comments on this project. And if you'd like to collaborate on an interesting software project, please do reach out.</p> <p>-Jeff</p> webdev ai productivity