zlacker

[parent] [thread] 0 comments
1. voldem+(OP)[view] [source] 2021-10-28 18:40:49
Most of the arguments here boil down to the same belabored point, that you shouldn't expect Copilot to actually write the code for you at the end of the day.

My take is it's what you make of it. Copilot is only equivalent to copy-and-pasting from stack overflow if that's how you choose to field its suggestions.

As an example, I've enjoyed typing "const one_day_in_ms" and letting it finish it out with "1000 * 24 * 60 * 60". I already knew how to do that, but having GCP finish it for me and verifying on my own didn't make me feel stupider, it made me more efficient. I have more interesting problems to tackle.

On the other hand, another coder could have not known this calculation and thrown their trust into GCP. That's bad practice and it's on them, not on the tool.

Sometimes GCP gives me code that it learned from bad coding patterns. I know how GCP works and I know to look out for that, so I ignore those suggestions.

Of course, sometimes I don't know if what looks like a good idea from GCP is actually not. I take that on as my responsibility to trust but verify. If it's writing some function to slugify a string for a URL, I check it against what people are discussing online. Does it defeat the purpose of GCP in this case if I have to check it on my own? Probably, but it's only in these specific instances when I'm doing something I'm not familiar with.

[go to top]