4 ms·

I found that when I tried to use Cursor for blogging I was totally infuriated by it. As happy as I am to have Cursor auto-complete my code all day long, the sen

I found that when I tried to use Cursor for blogging I was totally infuriated by it. As happy as I am to have Cursor auto-complete my code all day long, the sensation of having Cursor try to put words into my mouth (or, worse, put thoughts into my head) was very unpleasant. So I stopped trying to use Cursor for writing and went back to vim. But I found the unpleasantness of the sensation very surprising! I love using Cursor for writing code, but for some reason, even though I am primarily a programmer, it's much more important to me that my words are a "true expression of my spirit" than that my code is. I couldn't quite figure out why.

fxwin 2y ago
I've had the same experience with writing non-code text. I often use VSCode to write markdown documents on various things and having Copilot chime in to complete my mealplan for the week with 5 different kinds of chicken wraps is a weird feeling lol
easton 2y ago
The reason I barely use copilot is because it tries to write comments for me. I don’t get why they don’t have a button that says “disable autocomplete within comment blocks” (since the IDE knows which things are comments), but it’s so yucky feeling when it tries to write something I wouldn’t say.
- watt 2y ago
  I find the comments Copilot proposes is better than average comment quality for the code base I routinely work on: maybe you are so great you don't need any help ever, but that's not true for the average software dev.
  - lelanthran 2y ago
    > I find the comments Copilot proposes is better than average comment quality for the code base I routinely work on Maybe the average is just so bad? The completions I get for comments are document what the code is doing, which is not something that I ever put into comments. It's always: a) A highlevel (prefixed to the function/block/scope definition) list of steps, input expectations and output expectations for the forthcoming function/block/scope Or b) A note explaining why the code does what it does. A comment repeating the code but in English is useless.
    - skydhash 2y ago
      The best comments are the type of: Whatever bad thing you think of this part is probably true, but I can’t do better. And Beware, weird optimization ahead. And Editing this code requires arcane knowledge.
  - easton 2y ago
    It's not that my comments are infallible, but if I write something wrong/silly it'll be caught during code review. similarly if there's a comment missing before some arcane nonsense nobody will remember in 3 years, then i'd expect a PR reviewer to tell the dev to add one. Copilot just likes to puke very useless comments whenever I type "//", especially in autocomplete mode (I don't really use the chat mode).
- anentropic 2y ago
  https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/customizing-copilot/adding-repository-custom-instructions-for-github-copilot https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/customizing-copilot/addin... Not sure that would prevent it offering something as autocomplete in a comment block, but could ask it to write less/no comments generally
flir 2y ago
I've found that writing, then asking the chatbot for suggestions and selecting the ones I'm happy with is a reasonable approach. Treat it as an editor or a proof reader or a thesaurus on steroids. Not a pattern that really works with autocomplete, I guess.
peab 2y ago
I think code is purely functional - there might be a style component to it, but mostly what I care about is "does it do the thing I want it to do". Writing, on the other hand, is much more about expressing one's inner self. I write music and poetry as a hobby, and not once have I found chatGPT to be useful in this regard. Because the words aren't mine.

fxwin 2y ago

I've had the same experience with writing non-code text. I often use VSCode to write markdown documents on various things and having Copilot chime in to complete my mealplan for the week with 5 different kinds of chicken wraps is a weird feeling lol

easton 2y ago

The reason I barely use copilot is because it tries to write comments for me. I don’t get why they don’t have a button that says “disable autocomplete within comment blocks” (since the IDE knows which things are comments), but it’s so yucky feeling when it tries to write something I wouldn’t say.

watt 2y ago
I find the comments Copilot proposes is better than average comment quality for the code base I routinely work on: maybe you are so great you don't need any help ever, but that's not true for the average software dev.
- lelanthran 2y ago
  > I find the comments Copilot proposes is better than average comment quality for the code base I routinely work on Maybe the average is just so bad? The completions I get for comments are document what the code is doing, which is not something that I ever put into comments. It's always: a) A highlevel (prefixed to the function/block/scope definition) list of steps, input expectations and output expectations for the forthcoming function/block/scope Or b) A note explaining why the code does what it does. A comment repeating the code but in English is useless.
  - skydhash 2y ago
    The best comments are the type of: Whatever bad thing you think of this part is probably true, but I can’t do better. And Beware, weird optimization ahead. And Editing this code requires arcane knowledge.
- easton 2y ago
  It's not that my comments are infallible, but if I write something wrong/silly it'll be caught during code review. similarly if there's a comment missing before some arcane nonsense nobody will remember in 3 years, then i'd expect a PR reviewer to tell the dev to add one. Copilot just likes to puke very useless comments whenever I type "//", especially in autocomplete mode (I don't really use the chat mode).
anentropic 2y ago
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/customizing-copilot/adding-repository-custom-instructions-for-github-copilot https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/customizing-copilot/addin... Not sure that would prevent it offering something as autocomplete in a comment block, but could ask it to write less/no comments generally

flir 2y ago

I've found that writing, then asking the chatbot for suggestions and selecting the ones I'm happy with is a reasonable approach. Treat it as an editor or a proof reader or a thesaurus on steroids. Not a pattern that really works with autocomplete, I guess.

peab 2y ago

I think code is purely functional - there might be a style component to it, but mostly what I care about is "does it do the thing I want it to do". Writing, on the other hand, is much more about expressing one's inner self. I write music and poetry as a hobby, and not once have I found chatGPT to be useful in this regard. Because the words aren't mine.