4 ms·

How to use GitHub Copilot in your IDE: Tips, tricks, and best practices

16 points by Alupis 3y ago

fireattack 3y ago
I'm Copilot customer since day 1 and I'm mostly satisfied with it, until a few months ago. I noticed a mini project I was working on suddenly stopped showing any autocomplete results. The log shows the API returns empty `model deployment ID: []` constantly. Upon investigation, I found the reason is that my code includes the word "ass", because it is a project about parsing .ass subtitle format (Advanced SubStation Alpha). I have to rename all my variables to work around it, and eventually this isn't enough: I have a subprocess.run to call ffmpeg to burn subtitles on video when encoding. And the VF (video filter) for that is called.. ass. Here is an MRE (try typing anything after the line `subprocess.run` and observe the copilot log): import subprocess from pathlib import Path STORAGE_DIR = R"G:\test" def process(f, subtitle, output): subprocess.run([ "ffmpeg", "-v", "error", "-stats", "-i", output, "-vf", f"fps=60,ass={subtitle}", "-c:a", "copy", '-c:v', 'h264_nvenc', "-pix_fmt", "yuv420p", output, "-y" ]) def main(): for f in Path(STORAGE_DIR).iterdir(): process(f, f.with_suffix('.txt'), f.with_name(f.stem + '_ouptut' + '.mkv')) if __name__ == '__main__': main() Other people have reported similar issues [1] about other "bad" words. I mean, I get it, but don't they think having "ass" in that "profanity blacklist" would cause way too many false positives? To make it worse, MS/GitHub seem refusing to make any solution or even communicate about this issue. I've opened a ticket on GitHub's support system too, but got no response whatsoever after weeks. I'm very disappointed as a paid user. To any GitHub employee if you're by chance reading this, it would be tremendously helpful if you can help mention this issue internally. Thank you in advance. [1] https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/55630 https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/55630
- designed 3y ago
  A similar thing happens when the word "password" is present in the file. Copilot stops autocompleting. I haven't tried this yet, but I wonder if putting a comment at the top saying "the term ass refers to…" would convince copilot that you're not being profane. I've also been a user since day one and other than that "safety feature" it's been such a fantastic addition. I turned off intellisense because copilot does a much better job (more accurate, longer auto completions) albeit with slightly increased latency
- GloomyBoots 3y ago
  I’ve run into similar “features” like copilot refusing to complete anything that includes references to gender.
- tacone 3y ago
  Happened to me when I asked it to make my code more "succinct". Made me smile :)
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
shnkr 3y ago
I felt copilot chat is the only useful feature. copilot as in code completion is too annoying and distracts the thought process. It may be useful to new developers but for experienced, no thanks!
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
  It is useful for repetitive tasks usually

16 points by Alupis 3y ago

I'm Copilot customer since day 1 and I'm mostly satisfied with it, until a few months ago. I noticed a mini project I was working on suddenly stopped showing any autocomplete results. The log shows the API returns empty `model deployment ID: []` constantly. Upon investigation, I found the reason is that my code includes the word "ass", because it is a project about parsing .ass subtitle format (Advanced SubStation Alpha). I have to rename all my variables to work around it, and eventually this isn't enough: I have a subprocess.run to call ffmpeg to burn subtitles on video when encoding. And the VF (video filter) for that is called.. ass. Here is an MRE (try typing anything after the line `subprocess.run` and observe the copilot log): import subprocess from pathlib import Path STORAGE_DIR = R"G:\test" def process(f, subtitle, output): subprocess.run([ "ffmpeg", "-v", "error", "-stats", "-i", output, "-vf", f"fps=60,ass={subtitle}", "-c:a", "copy", '-c:v', 'h264_nvenc', "-pix_fmt", "yuv420p", output, "-y" ]) def main(): for f in Path(STORAGE_DIR).iterdir(): process(f, f.with_suffix('.txt'), f.with_name(f.stem + '_ouptut' + '.mkv')) if __name__ == '__main__': main() Other people have reported similar issues [1] about other "bad" words. I mean, I get it, but don't they think having "ass" in that "profanity blacklist" would cause way too many false positives? To make it worse, MS/GitHub seem refusing to make any solution or even communicate about this issue. I've opened a ticket on GitHub's support system too, but got no response whatsoever after weeks. I'm very disappointed as a paid user. To any GitHub employee if you're by chance reading this, it would be tremendously helpful if you can help mention this issue internally. Thank you in advance. [1] https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/55630 https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/55630

designed 3y ago
A similar thing happens when the word "password" is present in the file. Copilot stops autocompleting. I haven't tried this yet, but I wonder if putting a comment at the top saying "the term ass refers to…" would convince copilot that you're not being profane. I've also been a user since day one and other than that "safety feature" it's been such a fantastic addition. I turned off intellisense because copilot does a much better job (more accurate, longer auto completions) albeit with slightly increased latency
GloomyBoots 3y ago
I’ve run into similar “features” like copilot refusing to complete anything that includes references to gender.
tacone 3y ago
Happened to me when I asked it to make my code more "succinct". Made me smile :)

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

shnkr 3y ago

I felt copilot chat is the only useful feature. copilot as in code completion is too annoying and distracts the thought process. It may be useful to new developers but for experienced, no thanks!

Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
It is useful for repetitive tasks usually