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GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

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Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#131

Post by myth_drannon »

machine_ghost wrote: post #61
gokhan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a programmer, I think it's easier to replace programmers than many other occupations. We work with generic DSLs called programming languages, which can be easily handled by AI. Most of what we produce can be easily parsed by an AI. We work in small, incremental tasks which is perfect for AI. Most of us use the same set of tools. What else? UI is similar everywhere, especially in LoB apps. What we produce is repeti…

In the long run, yes, but if programming were so rote and simple, we all wouldn't have jobs in the first place. Look, technology has always replaced jobs, throughout history (how many of you know professional lamp lighters, elevator doormen, or switchboard operators?) But the thing is, tech has always replaced the jobs that are easiest to automate ... not the "intellectual work". I would be far more worried about bei…

real estate agents, lawyers are all licensed professionals... they will not be replaced but possibly these professions will be overcrowded.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#132

Post by why-el »

bramhaag wrote: post #19

It can suggest terminal commands and ask you to execute them People were already blindly copy pasting commands from StackExchange answers, but at least those are moderated. I wonder how long it takes before someone nukes their project or root directory.

> "ask you"

I get the concern, however. But, short of nuking the actual .git directory, the upsides are worth it, in my opinion. Cursor offers filtering via a mini-prompt in its YOLO mode, so does Windsurf. The idea is killer, it allows it to progressively build and also correct its own errors. e.g. Cursorrules can be told to run tests after a feature is generated, or typecheck, or some other automated feedback-loop your codebase offers. That's pretty neat!

Better yet, setup a dev container first. Then, at most, your local DB is the only concern. If still paranoid (as you should be), suspend your network while the agent is working. :D

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#133

Post by skydhash »

dabinat wrote: post #5

I use Copilot and it’s a game-changer for my productivity, but I really wish it was capable of natural language searching. So for example I could ask it “show me all places in the code where x is assigned a value but a flush() command is not immediately issued afterwards”.

> So for example I could ask it “show me all places in the code where x is assigned a value but a flush() command is not immediately issued afterwards”.

Could this not work? (with wathever flag to display the surrounding lines)

  ripgrep 'x =' | ripgrep 'flush()'

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#134

Post by myth_drannon »

gokhan wrote: post #49
threatofrain wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we actually could get to a world where programmers can be replaced, we'll also likely find that vast swathes of the population will be replaced. Then we'll need a totally new conversation on how society should look. That conversation is coming no matter what, because there will not be a global consensus to stop ML development, esp. on the war front.

As a programmer, I think it's easier to replace programmers than many other occupations. We work with generic DSLs called programming languages, which can be easily handled by AI. Most of what we produce can be easily parsed by an AI. We work in small, incremental tasks which is perfect for AI. Most of us use the same set of tools. What else? UI is similar everywhere, especially in LoB apps. What we produce is repeti…

Cobol was also supposed to give power to business people so they could in plain English language, "program" the computer. It never happened but for sure advances in PL changed how programmers interacted with computer. We went from machine code to Python,React which is huge technological leap.

The same goes for all the AI agents, it will change how we work but will not make programmers obsolete. I'm more worried about 3 million engineering grads per year from India replacing me than CoPilot/CursorAI

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#135

Post by bongodongobob »

throw83288 wrote: post #107
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any "normal" engineering field will be solved with the right domain knowledge. Oh no, don't worry. Nobody will be trusting GenAI only for Real Work like aerodynamics, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, plasma physics, you name it. For sure there will be (already is) AI-based surrogate models, fast preconditioners, superresolution methods etc. But you will for the duration of our lifetime need humans who unders…

Required time to move into a regulated engineering field is 4 years. 4 years in the AI world is currently a 10^4 = 10000x capability delta. It's not like the engineering and academia curmudgeons will replace their employees as much be utterly destroyed by the AI labs hiring maybe one or two tenured professors per field to make an internal startup and then letting them oversee what the megascaled reasoners spit out at…

You'd better get out of tech then. Change is inherent in the field. It's the whole point.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#137

Post by cruffle_duffle »

ndiddy wrote: post #84
diggan wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some extensions are MS only though Is that really true? According to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42931088 ("VSCode Marketplace Web Pages No Longer Allow Direct VSIX Downloads"), you can still manually download extensions via cURL et al, if you really want to. Probably will disappear in the future though.

One example: Microsoft's closed-source Pylance extension (their replacement to the previous open source Python language server) has DRM that will refuse to run on non-Microsoft builds of VS Code.

This was the example I was gonna give, thanks.

Also the extension “store” is a clone or something in cursor and I’m pretty sure might not have the same data (installs, current version, etc)

If I was Cursor I’m pretty sure I’d rather not be maintaining a fork of VSCode…

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#138

Post by TuxSH »

ks2048 wrote: post #90

So what happens when GitHub's auto-SWE is good enough to take on "Write me a GitHub clone, but with additional features X,Y, and Z"? Will they have regret it? I know this is slightly far-fetched and AI-coders are coming regardless of if GitHub is working on it, but it does seem like these companies are destroying part of their moat (codebase and SW infrastructure). (I also realize their bigger moat is brand and exist…

GitHub's real moat is their good and responsive support (even for free users), infra (GH Actions, GHCR, etc.), and value as social network. Indeed, people use GitHub because all their peers do (network effect).

Gitea focuses on self-hosting AFAIK

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#140

Post by skydhash »

Almondsetat wrote: post #127
skydhash wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coding was always trivial (see code generators, snippets, templates). The issue is making all the little pieces work and adjust them as needed.

And that's why software engineering =/= coding

I'm currently reading Modern Software Engineering by David Farley and I can say that we won't see programmers replaced unless all the concerns pointed out in this book and others has been resolved.
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