Democratizing programming: Let everyone build their own apps with Cursor and Windsurf
Table of contents
- Foreword: Program Development Revolution in the AI Era
- The power of Cursor and Windsurf
- Conclusion
Foreword: Program Development Revolution in the AI Era
Sometimes, an artificial intelligence tool suddenly becomes popular and becomes the focus of the technology world. Recently, two AI programming tools, Cursor and Windsurf, are rapidly occupying the hot topic list on social media, bringing unprecedented possibilities to the democratization of programming. The emergence of these two tools not only makes professional developers excited, but also gives many people without programming background the hope of realizing their own ideas. Cursor uses models such as Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o to make it easier for anyone to build their own applications. As a powerful alternative to Cursor , Windsurf also uses a powerful AI model and provides free GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet models for users to experience, while also providing a friendlier UX.The power of Cursor and Windsurf
Cursor is a code editor with AI at its core. Since its founding in 2022, the startup has raised more than $400 million in funding and partnered with multiple models including Anthropic and OpenAI . It is particularly worth mentioning that the latest version of Cursor V0.43.3 introduces the revolutionary Composer Agent . This innovative tool completely redefines the concept of AI-assisted programming.Cursor Composer: AI-powered program development assistant
Composer Agent's innovative breakthrough
What is amazing is that Composer Agent has strong autonomy. Based on developers’ actual experience, this AI Agent can continuously debug and optimize programs without supervision. What’s interesting is that it not only fixes bugs, but also proactively adds some features, such as adding welcome words and other interactive elements, showing an almost “humanized” quality. However, it should be noted that just like real-life colleagues may make things more complicated when working overtime, AI Agent may also change the program beyond recognition during the process of over-optimization, making the original author unrecognizable. Therefore, when using this powerful tool, it is recommended to continuously monitor its operation and make good use of a version control system so that changes can be reverted when necessary.Real development experience
A developer shared his experience: "Before work yesterday, I enabled Cursor's latest AI Agent function, let it debug itself, and then left work. What I saw when I came back this morning shocked me - AI is not only Bugs have been fixed, and many new features have been added, such as interactive elements such as welcome messages. Although these changes are quite cute, they do make the program less recognizable. This taught me a lesson: when using AI. When using tools, you need to set scopes and limits more carefully."Core functions
Cursor Composer allows developers to provide prompt commands to create complete applications or make complex multi-file modifications. Its key features include:- Multiple file editing
- Create or modify multiple archives in a single operation
- Intelligent handling of dependencies between files
- Automatically sync changes to related files
- Complete application generation
- Generate entire applications based on high-level instructions
- Automatically create project structure
- Generate a complete code skeleton
- contextual understanding
- AI considers the entire project structure and existing code
- Intelligent analysis of code dependencies
- Understand and maintain coding style
- Interactive optimization
- Developers can provide additional instructions to improve the generated code
- Instant feedback and corrections
- Smart Suggestions Best Practices
How to use Cursor Composer
Basic settings
- Install and enable
- Enable Composer functionality in the "Beta" section of Cursor settings
- Make sure you are connected to the corresponding AI model service
- quick access
- MacOS: Use the Cmd+I shortcut
- Windows: Use the Ctrl+I shortcut
Actual operation process
- Start a new project
啟動Composer > 輸入專案需求> 選擇技術體系> 生成基礎框架- Provide development instructions
- Use natural language to describe requirements
- Specify target file or module
- Set specific function parameters
- Code optimization and debugging
- Ask AI to review generated code
- Provide optimization suggestions
- Automatically fix potential issues
Practical case: developing a web application
The following is a process of developing a web application using Cursor Composer, which demonstrates the autonomous learning and optimization capabilities of AI Agent:- Initialization project
指令：「建立一個使用React 的網頁應用，包含用戶註冊和登入功能」AI回應：開始創建專案結構，加入必要的安全性驗證...意外驚喜：AI主動加入了密碼強度檢測和自動登出功能- Automatic optimization at night
啟用自動除錯功能AI行為：- 優化資料庫查詢效能- 加入使用者操作提示- 改進錯誤處理機制- 主動補充單元測試User experience and suggestions
- Make good use of version control
- Submit the current code before enabling AI automatic optimization each time
- Create a separate branch for AI-generated code
- Regularly check and review AI changes
- Set clear boundaries
- Specify the file range that AI can modify
- Clearly mark the core logic that should not be changed
- Set optimization priorities and goals
- Maintain supervision and control
- Check AI regularly for changes
- Stop excessive optimization in time
- Retain control of key decisions
Conclusion
The emergence of AI program development tools such as Cursor and Windsurf, especially AI assistants with autonomous learning capabilities such as Composer Agent, are completely changing the rules of the game for program development. These tools not only improve development efficiency, but more importantly, lower the threshold for program development, allowing more people to realize their creativity. Through careful use of strategies and appropriate control mechanisms, we can give full play to the advantages of AI tools while avoiding possible risks, making program development easier and more interesting. In the future, as AI technology continues to advance, we can expect to see the emergence of more knowledgeable development assistants like Composer Agent, further promoting the democratization process of programming. The important thing is that we must learn to make good use of these AI tools and let our imagination develop various new era applications.The postDemocratizing Programming: Letting Everyone Build Their Own Apps with Cursor and Windsurf appeared first on Accucrazy Xiao Zhun Marketing .
