With GitHub Copilot, get suggestions for whole lines or entire functions right inside your editor.
Here I just started to write the function signature, and copilot inferred all the code that should be in that function.
Copilot did infer correctly that the code inside the function is about to change a markdown file, but he proposed to modify the README.md which is not the right one.
Final version:
Here I just started to write the function name and signature, and copilot could not infer something useful from the function signature.
The idea of that function is, given the start date of a project and given the percentage of the done as of today, estimate the end date of the project.
Then after googling, I found the first step of the code should be to find the elapsed days from the start of the project (yes, I know I am a stupid developer), so I just started to type const elap :
Not so bad, after all!
Then I told me: now I have to get the number of remaining days from what has already been done, so I just started to type const rema :
Oh, great!
Could it be possible that if I define a variable named endDate at the next line that copilot gives me the solution?
So I just started to type const endDate :
And final result is:
But... wait, I have red squiggles in my code and could not get rid of it! How is it possible?
Go back to googling (Oh yes I am really stupid) and found it: copilot think I am a JavaScript coder, but I am writing my code in Typescript!
Ok dear pair-programer
copilot, let me pilot now to polish the final code:
Ok great ! Thanks to copilot, I have a great function ready to be used.
Now the following test should be green, isn't ?
Given I started my Github project on 2019-08-08
And I have achieved 50% of it as of now (2021-08-08)
Then the estimated end date should be 2023-08-08Hold on! The test is RED !!! The computed estimated end date is 2020-11-19 : my project is about to finish in the past !
What's wrong ?
Ah, ah, I should add the remaining time not to the start date but to the now date instead.
Now listen to me dear
copilotand learn from a real developer :
Houra ! Now the above test is green !!!
Let's try another test dear
copilotjust to show that you and I are the best pair:
Given I started my Github project on 2020-08-08
And I have achieved 10% of it as of now (2021-08-08)
Then the estimated end date should be 2030-08-08Hey ! W... T..... F...., test is RED !!! The estimated date is 2022-07-03.
Hum, after doing some math on a small piece of paper, I realized that the code should be :
Above test, still not green, but estimated date is now 2030-08-13 which is very near to what it should be.
In some situation, copilot might drive you in the wrong direction without you noticing that at the end your code is buggy.
Always ensure you have a good testing strategy when using copilot.
TDD coding should be the recommended way to pair with copilot.
I just started to write this function name and signature :
function isJson(content: string): boolean
and immediate feedback from my fellow pair-programmer (you are my friend again):
I was in the middle of writing a typescript code generator:
const dataFileName = `${targetFolderName}.json`;
const dataFilePath = path.join(targetSubDirectory, dataFileName);
writeFileSync(dataFilePath, JSON.stringify(missingMock.response, null, 2));
const mockSourceCode = generateMockCodeOf(missingMock, dataFileName);The mockSourceCode is a string that represent typescript source code that is supposed to import as a first step the JSON file dataFileName:
import response from './${dataFileName}';In my mind the next code line was to write the content of mockSourceCode to a typescript file.
When I was about to type my code, suddenly my fellow pair-programmer, told me :
Hey man, it's too late for you, go to sleep and let me finish the job :
Hey my fellow
copilot, are you reading in my mind ???