5 ms·

Genuine question: Copilot has been out for a while, has there been an order-of-magnitude effect on dev productivity?

by arcturus17 4y ago

visarga 4y ago
Maybe a 20% effect
- Eji1700 4y ago
  That seems EXTREMELY high unless people weren't already using things like snippets to help automate boilerplate.
nso95 4y ago
ChatGPT seems much better than Copilot
- gardenhedge 4y ago
  I haven't used copilot but what sort of questions are you asking chatgpt?
  - XeO3 4y ago
    The one difference I can see is how chatGPT optimises the code based on the instruction you provide, while Copilot could only complete the code in one way. For instance I asked chatGPT to write a code for square root which it did using inbuilt Math.sqrt function. I instructed it to write without using inbuilt function which it did. However, no matter how many times I instructed it to avoid using Math.floor or Math.ceil, it was not taking any heed.
    - RugnirViking 4y ago
      in most copilot editor extentions there is a window you can open that gives 10 different completions. You can also easily shape what it gives you with a single comment ("# function for a qsquare root, don't use math.sqrt or math.floor" etc)
- bluerooibos 4y ago
  Really? Copilot uses GPT-3 under the hood though - are they not using the same model underneath?
  - nso95 4y ago
    Maybe I just haven't played with copilot enough
RugnirViking 4y ago
personally, it's awesome for certain things. Learning new technologies its great, produces new ideas for how the syntax works that are usually right. It's also very good at tedious complicated maths. While using it for hobby gamedev it's been super great for writing code for transformations, animations, rotations in 3d space etc. While those are things I could do given maybe 20 mins, it can often get them first or second try (under a minute!) It's not a superhero, and having watched people with no experience using it, its not nearly as helpful if you have no idea what you're doing, but it has a real sweet spot when you are generally experienced but new to a technology, field or project

Genuine question: Copilot has been out for a while, has there been an order-of-magnitude effect on dev productivity?

visarga 4y ago

Maybe a 20% effect

Eji1700 4y ago
That seems EXTREMELY high unless people weren't already using things like snippets to help automate boilerplate.

nso95 4y ago

ChatGPT seems much better than Copilot

gardenhedge 4y ago
I haven't used copilot but what sort of questions are you asking chatgpt?
- XeO3 4y ago
  The one difference I can see is how chatGPT optimises the code based on the instruction you provide, while Copilot could only complete the code in one way. For instance I asked chatGPT to write a code for square root which it did using inbuilt Math.sqrt function. I instructed it to write without using inbuilt function which it did. However, no matter how many times I instructed it to avoid using Math.floor or Math.ceil, it was not taking any heed.
  - RugnirViking 4y ago
    in most copilot editor extentions there is a window you can open that gives 10 different completions. You can also easily shape what it gives you with a single comment ("# function for a qsquare root, don't use math.sqrt or math.floor" etc)
bluerooibos 4y ago
Really? Copilot uses GPT-3 under the hood though - are they not using the same model underneath?
- nso95 4y ago
  Maybe I just haven't played with copilot enough

RugnirViking 4y ago

personally, it's awesome for certain things. Learning new technologies its great, produces new ideas for how the syntax works that are usually right. It's also very good at tedious complicated maths. While using it for hobby gamedev it's been super great for writing code for transformations, animations, rotations in 3d space etc. While those are things I could do given maybe 20 mins, it can often get them first or second try (under a minute!) It's not a superhero, and having watched people with no experience using it, its not nearly as helpful if you have no idea what you're doing, but it has a real sweet spot when you are generally experienced but new to a technology, field or project