Who needs GitHub Copilot?

12 Jun 2023 on ai, development

Generative AI? Who needs it? You’re the consummate developer and nothing is beyond your staggering cognitive powers, so why would you need GitHub Copilot - or any copilot for that matter?

1. 1. You prefer writing code in Notepad
2. 2. You like writing boilerplate code
3. 3. You know every regex expression.
4. 4. You know every API
5. 5. You like copying and pasting from StackOverflow.
6. 6. You don’t need unit tests.
7. 7. Comments? What for?
8. 8. You’d rather leak IP by pasting code into ChatGPT.
9. Conclusion

Photo by Aideal Hwa on Unsplash

Generative AI, Copilot, blah blah blah - who needs it? You’re the Ultimate Programmer, so why would you want some pretentious “large” language model helping you? You’re a lone wolf that don’t need nobody (or no thing) to “help” you - it will only get in the way of your staggering intellect.

Well this post is just for you - top reasons why do DON’T need GitHub Copilot.

1. You prefer writing code in Notepad

GitHub Copilot only supports four IDEs: Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, IntelliJ and NeoVim. But you prefer to code in Notepad. Or vim. Or emacs. All those plugins and breakpoints and live debugging - it’s overrated. You can debug in your head just by looking at the perfect code you wrote. And you can quit vim whenever you want to.

So what if Copilot integrates seamlessly and fades into the background as you code?

2. You like writing boilerplate code

Constructors. Getters. Setters. Who needs to think about business problems when you can write real code. I mean, you learned how to do it when you did your Intro to Programming course, so you want to make sure you get your money’s worth.

So what if Copilot is really good at writing repetitive, boilerplate code, thereby keeping you focused on solving business problems?

3. You know every regex expression.

Only losers need to test their regex expressions using regex101. You don’t need Copilot’s help to validate obscure string formats - you just do it in your head.

So what if Copilot can generate regex and easily dump out obscure formats and formulas so that you don’t have to remember them or search for them?

4. You know every API

Who needs to look up how to invoke common APIs? Once you’ve seen a Swagger doc you can call any and every method in that API forever.

So what if Copilot knows how to call APIs that millions of developers use daily?

5. You like copying and pasting from StackOverflow.

Speaking of searching for stuff - you love StackOverflow! What’s better than googling a question and then inevitably landing on StackOverflow where there are a bunch of random answers that may or may not be correct that you can copy from? And who doesn’t love renaming all the variables and fixing all the formatting errors (tabs vs spaces anyone)? Not that you need to search for stuff anyway - your infallible memory is a giant library of endless code examples to draw from.

So what if Copilot can get answers for you without you having to leave the IDE… er, file… and follows your naming conventions and styles?

6. You don’t need unit tests.

Unit tests - that assumes your code could be wrong. And why spend time programming code that tries to break the code you just coded so perfectly? If you did write unit tests, they would be the ultimate tests.

So what if Copilot can quickly generate tests, mocks and find multiple test cases just by analyzing the code you’re testing?

7. Comments? What for?

You don’t have to document your code. Your code is so perfect that people can tell what it’s doing just by seeing your code. Besides, no-one else will ever need to look at your code unless it’s to learn how to program perfectly. Da Vinci didn’t have to “comment” the Mona Lisa, did he?

So what if GitHub Copilot can generate code based on your comments, and that the comments stay to help document your code?

8. You’d rather leak IP by pasting code into ChatGPT.

You’re not like those Samsung developers that leaked sensitive information while copying code into ChatGPT, right? I mean, you’d never be asking an AI for help anyway.

So what if Copilot encrypts data and uses an HTTPS and (at least for Copilot for Business) never keeps any of the data or solutions?

Conclusion

This GitHub Copilot thing is totally overrated. It’s not going to change the way you work or the perfection of the code that you crank out as you consume coffee and cold pizza. No way.

Happy (not) Copiloting!