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PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

nikolays.github.io

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Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#82
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are buttons on the bottom left: pause and two to adjust the speed (down to 0.1x). Some parts of the city can be adjusted when you click on it (I just found the transactions/s)

Ah indeed there is. Totally didn't notice that, thanks. But even at .1x it's too quick. :) I should be able to fire individual transactions and watch them flow.

yeah, interactivity would be next-level (as several others in these threads have mentioned)

Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try pressing T

That's fantastic, please tell me I was short sighted and missed this when I wrote my comment.

yeah, it was there before your comment; maybe not easy to find (help is on "?", which is also maybe not easy to find)

Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#84
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~3.86B * $5/M tokens ≈ $19.3k Is that the cost you've payed for this or is my calculation completely wrong?

Likely a lot of those tokens are cached. And because it’s an individual project it’s likely this is under a personal Claude Max 20x plan.

correct on both counts

Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#85
I wonder if games can be developed to teach CS (OS, db, compilers) which are visual. Instead of reading a book on databases, perhaps tinkering with something like this would make learning easier. (I'm not a gamer, but I read about factorio kind of games on hn).

Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you. WIP! thanks for all the feedback. It's amazing for me too. It all started yesterday with a single prompt and curiosity what Opus 5 can do. ~3.86B tokens used so far (not counting GPT 5.6 Sol that at some point started to do a lot of legwork for coding)

Share the prompt here please?

it was silly, quick check out of curiosity what Opus 5 can do – and the first thing I saw was so impressive that it made me spend hours during weekend polishing it

here it is from history, without edits

> you're a veteran Postgres hacker and expert. I want 3D visualization of how Postgres works, for browser -- all its major components, presented as a 3d model, complex, with all parts zoomable, and animated, with controls -- checkpointer, bgwriter, autovacuum, walwriter, backends, walsender, etc etc etc. Imagine we need to build a 3d model of whole city. That's same level. We need this so engineers who are non-DB-experts would easily understand how it works. Design must be cool, modern, super cool, running all in browser, with controls, with camera position flying with arrow keys and mouse, zoomable, etc. Think deep how to implement it, which modern cool tech to use, and use ultracode to implement in a new directory (we'll commit it later). OK to use the most cool and most modern stuff. Think deep choose tools wisely and let's build an awesome in-browser 3d model of Postgres engine

(later I came with lots of materials about internals and behavior and we started to polish / improve)

Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#88

Considering that it has been vibe-coded with not even 48 hours passed: Is this truthful and accurate at all? Or will it lead to false conclusions and anti-knowledge?

Not entirely sure, but the person vibe coding this does know Postgres really well tbf

Re: PGSimCity - How PostgreSQL Works

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Share the prompt here please?

it was silly, quick check out of curiosity what Opus 5 can do – and the first thing I saw was so impressive that it made me spend hours during weekend polishing it here it is from history, without edits > you're a veteran Postgres hacker and expert. I want 3D visualization of how Postgres works, for browser -- all its major components, presented as a 3d model, complex, with all parts zoomable, and animated, with cont…

I frequently have asked Claude to explain different software architecture things that I don’t know because I’m not formally technically trained - like “explain Django as though it’s a city with different parts having different roles”. I’m a visual learner so this helps a lot and gives me ideas for how to have similar visualizing for other stuff at various levels of abstraction.
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