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GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

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Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#201

Post by throwaway4aday »

drdrek wrote: post #167

I would love to hear from other people here but I tried it for a while and dropped my subscription. For short things it was nice, but the larger the suggestion the worst it got. I found myself constantly mentally debugging the output it suggested, I do not know if it was faster but I was mentally exhausted by it, unable to go for long periods of time. Dumb code completion is predictable, I know I'll need to press dow…

I currently use copilot and 80% of the benefit I get from it is boilerplate and refactoring, the rest is just using it as smart autocomplete where I can zip through adding a bunch of properties or arguments. I use it for a lot of greenfield stuff though which is really where it shines since a lot of that work is just standing up all the essential bits and pieces before you have to do anything complex. It's helped me massively with going from an idea to a working implementation both by getting rid of a lot of the boring typing and by keeping me going when I started to get a bit run down or uninspired.

I can understand why you might not like it if you were using it for critical things that needed to be well planned and debugged before running. I don't find it very good at intricate work but that's ok with me since I want to really slow down at those points and think about what I'm doing.

As a side note, using ChatGPT with GPT-4 or even just GPT turbo is an amazing unblocker for projects where you need to use unfamiliar packages, APIs or languages. You can just talk to it about what you're trying to do and it'll provide you with great examples and explanations. It won't be right 100% of the time but it's right enough to get you unstuck and a lot faster than searching through docs or stackoverflow for a good answer. It helps to be very precise with your problem statement as well, like specifying the version of the package you want to use or a time frame. Those little prompt tricks remind me a lot of the Google-fu we had to learn to search effectively. I'm excited that Copilot is going to be moving to GPT-4 with chat built in, it'll unify the whole process.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#202

Post by pxoe »

bredren wrote: post #129
gonehome wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is a so well positioned on this I think Silicon Valley has forgotten what it looks like when they don’t have a horrible CEO. When Microsoft executes well, they’re a scary force. They were exceptional under Gates and it looks like they are again. There’s a massive paradigm shift we’re just at the beginning of and Microsoft has been putting pieces in place for the last couple of years. Nadella has really turn…

If it were not for the impending headset, Apple would look a wee bit caught out as well. I suspect once Apple turns toward gen ai, all of its other advantages (infra, hw, instal base, services, etc) will propel it to forefront.

a headset is not a suit of AI products. it's kinda...irrelevant. meta has a headset, and that's working out great for them, isn't it.

so far, there's nothing. there's only vague rumors, or not even - just assumptions that "surely apple will do something about this", "they'll turn to ai eventually". well, they have siri. which doesn't exactly inspire hope for much.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#203

Post by hellcow »

SanderNL wrote: post #79
sebzim4500 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>IMHO it will drastically reduce real productivity for those who will remain on this platform Why do you believe this? Everyone I know who has used copilot has found it made them more productive. Admittedly, reports differ wildly on how much more productive from ~10% to ~100%.

I have used it for 2 months and disabled it. So there is your exception. The code it suggests is always highly suspect and writing raw code never was the problem in the first place (for me). I was “discussing” with it for far longer than it was making me “productive”. I give it -5%. I do however love occasionally using GPT directly for converting some weird list of values to JSON or coming up with plausible test data…

Copilot definitely makes me much less productive, since it breaks my flow on every line. I give it a -50%. It is both very dumb and very loud. It feels like I'm pair programming with a 1st year CS student who pipes up on _every single line_ trying to predict what I will type next and getting 95% of it wrong.

I found ChatGPT however outputs good code when I want it do simple things. Writing unit tests is tedious, and ChatGPT is pretty good at that. Optimizing a SQL query, etc. Things that used to take some time are now either instantaneous or get me 90% of the way there, and I can do the final edits.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#204

Post by retrocryptid »

retrocryptid wrote: post #101

But for the fact that it would likely get me permabanned, I would suggest making HackerNews Copilot X, the system that responds to HN posts and comments on your behalf and in a manner guaranteed to get more upvotes from other AIbots hanging out in internet comments forums.

I see that the AI bot has already down-voted this comment.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#205

Post by bongobingo1 »

jghn wrote: post #142
vintermann wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, as long as my employers don't care (they don't), I don't care. I have no illusions that my code/our code will give Microsoft any valuable training data it couldn't trivially get elsewhere.

Mine does, and therein lies my issue.

If that's the case, would co-pilot be useful anyway? Or are you off the range where suggestions wont help?

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#206

Post by mynameisvlad »

elil17 wrote: post #141
retrocryptid wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's on par with a junior software engineer?

No, I don't think it's comparable to a junior engineer. It works best for pretty short snippets of code. It also can't decide when to run the program and how to interpret/make changes based on the results.

So… a junior developer?

I (mostly) kid but some seniors I know struggle at those things.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#207

Post by fnordpiglet »

moneywoes wrote: post #69
fnordpiglet wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone I know is understaffed. I think the outcome is roadmaps deliver more reliably not reduce headcount.

Seems strange with all the layoffs

That’s companies preparing for the artificial recession the fed is launching us into to ensure Twinkie’s don’t cost $0.05 more.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#208

Post by teaearlgraycold »

jchw wrote: post #122

Not very impressed with either Copilot or ChatGPT for programming purposes. I'm sure it will be interesting for some people, but whenever I really feel like I could benefit from an intelligent AI, it usually falls flat. Most commonly, it will just generate calls that don't exist, and if you try to get it to implement them, it will write bullshit. Now the thing is, maybe it really does improve developer productivity b…

I use them all the time with success. For copilot it’s very useful for writing tests and autocompleting repetitive code. Like writing a Typescript interface that matches a JSON object, or listing properties of an object into an array. ChatGPT is at worst a good rubber duck, and at best a superpowered documentation tool. If I ever get confused by docker or some popular JavaScript library it’s able to give me a custom tailored answer that usually solves my problem on the first or second try.

Neither of them are any good at just writing a ton of code (unless the code is mostly boilerplate). But they’re amazing keystroke savers and a next generation stack overflow.

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#209

Post by wfeefwfwe »

agent281 wrote: post #123
toomuchtodo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think people understand the hockey stick we’re on. Don’t focus too hard on the failings, look at the scaffolding being rapidly deployed that makes the iterative improvement process exceptionally tight.

I'm mostly curious how far the hockey stick will go up. Eventually most things level off.

[flagged]

Re: GitHub Copilot X – Sign up for technical preview

#210

Post by airstrike »

hu3 wrote: post #130

Scary. For the first time in my life, I feel like my expertise is at risk of being rendered obsolete. Maybe not this year, but the writing is on the wall. Soon coding without an AI will feel as antiquated as delivering food by horse. And resistance is futile because markets will punish those who refuse. We'll probably need less and less developers as AI advance. Just like we need less manual labor in farms today. And…

> Perhaps our first contact with an alien will be with one we created ourselves.

Man, that is some food for thought. Beautifully put.

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