zlacker

>>orph+(OP)
Copilot is crazy. The other day, I was writing a Python function that would call a Wikipedia API. I pulled from the internet an example of a GET request, and pasted it as a comment in my code.

  # sample call: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&format=json&list=geosearch&gscoord=37.7891838%7C-122.4033522&gsradius=10000&gslimit=100

Then I defined a variable,

  base_url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?"

Then, like magic, Copilot suggested all the remaining keys that would go in the query params. It even knew which params were to be kept as-is, and which ones would come from my previous code:

  action = "query"  # action=query
  format = "json"  # or xml
  lat = str(latitude.value)  # 37.7891838
  lon = str(longitude.value)  # -122.4033522
  gscoord = lat + "%7C" + lon
  ...
  api_path = base_url + "action=" + action + "&format=" + format + ... + "&gscoord=" + gscoord

As a guy who gets easily distracted while programming, Copilot saves me a lot of time and keeps me engaged with my work. I can only imagine what it'll look like 10 years from now.

>>pugets+Nr
Bit of a dodgy way to form query parameters though. Other than for a quick script.

>>c7DJTL+gy
I'm not against "copying" code. I just looked up "python build url query" The first link describes the `urllib.parse. urlencode` function which takes a dict.

So I would build the query like so:

    from urllib.parse import urlencode
    urlencode({
        "action": "query",
        "format": "json",
        ...
        "gscoord": f"{str(latitude.value)}|{str(longitude.value)}",
    })

I think this is orders of magnitude clearer code. But that's a parameter that's subjective that CoPilot can't adjust for (although it can be better).

>>Matthi+xD
This. Code should be optimized for reading, I think this kind of code is OK for exploratory stuff, but needs to be rewritten later.

>>lambda+AH
Well. Code should be optimized first for correctness, and simple string concatenation will not work for URL params.