Descriptions:
In this video, Dave from Dave’s Garage uses OpenAI’s GPT CodeX51 Max to build RetroPad — a faithful Windows XP-style Notepad clone written in C++ — without writing a single line of code himself. Frustrated by modern Notepad’s added tabs, session restore, and AI features, Dave sets out to recreate the original’s simplicity by prompting CodeX with a detailed specification: a Win32 application named RetroPad, split into logical source files under 1,000 lines each, compiled with a generated Makefile into a standalone retropad.exe with a custom icon.
The video shows the full generation process in real time (sped up), including CodeX’s multi-step file creation plan, the permission prompts required for each new file, and the model’s decisions around window class registration, message loop architecture, WM_COMMAND handling for menus, drag-and-drop file loading, word wrap, the Find dialog, and file encoding support. Dave provides running commentary explaining the underlying Win32 concepts — such as WndProc message routing and DefWindowProc fallthrough — making the video useful both as an AI coding demonstration and as a primer on classic Windows application structure.
The end result is a compilable, working Notepad replacement. Dave’s experiment illustrates both the capability of modern AI coding agents on well-scoped legacy tasks and the iterative permission model that tools like CodeX use when writing to disk.
📺 Source: Dave’s Garage · Published December 01, 2025
🏷️ Format: Hands On Build
