There’s a lot of consternation over copyright issues, but I see an entirely different problem. When I hear this tool described and see it’s examples the first thing I think is that Github has just automated the dubious process of copy/pasting from StackOverflow.
As a senior developer, I am strongly biased against the SO+c/p programming approach that I’ve seen many Junior and mid level developers use. There’s certainly a time and place for it when you become really stuck but at least having to go out and find the code yourself requires thought which helps you grow.
My gut reaction to Copilot is that adding this automation into IDEs is going to have a net-negative effect on growing developers as it lowers the level of thought and effort necessary to write even trivial applications. This is a huge detriment to learning. You don’t even get the chance to try to solve the problems yourself because the AI is going to be proactively getting in the way of your learning.
All that being said, I think a tool like this could be of great use with boilerplate within a project — but only suggesting things from that project. For example, setting up a new api route, dependency injection, error propagation, etc. Help with all of these mechanical things would be awesome.
Never thought I’d be giving shouts out to Sarah and Duck on HN but here we are. That show has a rare combination of real chill and real personality. As my son is aging out of Sarah and Duck, I’m hoping to find similar content to offer him that will be stimulating but not spastic like so many shows. I would also love to find more stuff like Beat Bugs and Motown Magic, which are a bit more typical but still wholesome.
