GitHub Copilot is generally available

Business is trying to commoditize software development, because it's slow and expensive. All they have ever wanted, is to get their automation with the blanks filled in correctly, more or less immediately.

No-code, visual programming, gherkin, even SQL are all prior attempts at reducing the expense of software development, and of sidestepping the expensive, excuse laden gatekeepers that are software developers.

Copilot is an MVP of a technology that will probably eventually succeed in doing this, and my guess is, it's going to make CRUD slinging obsolete very soon.

Copilot is not backwards, it's just that it's a convenience tool for the execution of business, not for software developers.

When version 2 of the tool can both code and error check, hopefully you're already promoted to architect by then...

Not that OP's problem is curly braces per se (they would make the error more obvious, but they wouldn't help with a missing return call), but since we're taling about them...

The insistence of a lot of smart people on using whitespace for logic purposes is THE most baffling thing in the IT space. And I mean that.

Why use some, oh I dont know, CHARACTER, to write down what you mean, why not instead use a NON CHARACTER. Now that's a great idea!

Let's use non characters, so a mix of tabs and spaces (which editors can implement AND display in a number of different ways, even depending on individual configuration!) fucks up shit. Using whitespace is also great because copy/paste is now an error-prone exercise in frustration, which is definitely what we want! Oh and also this will make sure that the peasants are not using our beautiful language IN NAUGHTY WAYS, e.g. you can't really write a deeply nested logic in a single function if it becomes a complete abomination of a mess just after like two or three indentations.

No, but seriously, Python's syntax in regards to whitespace, or any language that uses whitespace for control structures, is hot garbage. I understand that there are preferences, coding standard, etc. and I can tolerate a lot, but this, this is the one hill I'm willing to die on.

I've been using the beta since last year and I love it. I think most of the people complaining about it either haven't used it, or are judging it on its most verbose guesses. That's not what I use it for mostly. For me, it's just a really, really good autocomplete. It's best for things with common patterns and APIs. But hey, they're common so I write them a lot. Boring stuff like creating a Response object, adding the right headers and response code. And look, it's worked out that I need a case for a 404 next, and has suggested the code for that to, and a 500 in my catch block. Sure, that's not much typing or cognitive load, but added up over many, many times then it's easily worth it.

And no, I'm not a beginner. I'm a principal with over 20 years experience. I don't really use it for the Stack Overflow-type stuff, but even as an autocomplete it's worth the money. As it happens I'm apparently eligible for free access as an open source maintainer, but I'd pay $100/year in a heartbeat for it. I'd pay for Intellisense if that was $100 too.

Oh, is Bing still a thing? Honest question, haven't heard it mentioned for years. Went from Altavista to Google (I believe, it's a long time ago...) and now to DDG a couple of years ago. Never considered Bing directly although I believe DDG results come or came from Bing.

I've been using copilot for 6 months and it has been an exceptional tool worth the money even if not always generating correct code.

What i'm concerned with is that i think it can interrupt the flow of thoughts while programming since you have to review the generated code, but that is the price to pay to use such a formidable tool