What is GitHub Copilot?

It's time to take a break, stretch our legs, grab a drink, and maybe even join in some interesting conversations around the water cooler as Michael goes off script, Joe is very confused, and Allen insists that we stay on script.

The full show notes for this episode are available at https://www.codingblocks.net/episode163. Stop by, check it out, and join the conversation.

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News

• We really appreciate the latest reviews, so thank you!
  • iTunes: EveryNickIsTaken2858, Memnoch97
• Allen finished his latest ergonomic keyboard review: Moonlander Ergonomic Keyboard Long Term Review (YouTube)
• Sadly, the .http files tip from episode 161 for JetBrains IDEs is only application for JetBrains' Ultimate version.
  • Test RESTful Web services (JetBrains)

Meantime, at the watercooler….

GitHub Copilot (GitHub)

• In short, it's a VS Code Extension that leverages the OpenAI Codex, a product that translates natural language to code, in order to … wait for it … write code. It's currently in limited preview.

What's the value?

• Is the code correct? Github says ~40-50% in some large scale test cases
• It works best with small, documented functions
• Does having the code written for you steer you towards solutions?
• Could this encourage similar bugs/security holes across multiple languages by people importing the same code?
• Is this any different from developers using the same common solutions from StackOverflow?
• Could it become a crutch for new developers?
• Better for certain kinds of code? (Boiler plate, common accessors, date math)
  • Boiler Plate (like angular / controller vars)
  • Common APIs (Twitter, Goodreads)
  • Common Algorithms, Design Patterns
  • Less Familiar Languages
• But is it useful? We'll see!

Is this the future?

• We see more low, no, and now co-code solutions all the time, is this where things are going?
• This probably won't be "it", but maybe we will see things like this more commonly – in any case it's different, why not give it a shot?

Is it Ethical?

• The "AI" or whatever has been trained on "billions of lines" of open-source code…but not strictly permissive licenses. This means a dev using this tool runs the risk of accidently including proprietary code
  • Quake Engine Source Code Example (GPLv2) (Twitter)
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