What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot, an AI developer tool, provides code suggestions to programmers on various IDEs like Visual Studio Code, Vim, JetBrains IDEs, Azure Data Studio, etc. It is based on natural language models provided by GitHub, OpenAI, and Microsoft, which have been trained on publicly available natural language text and open-source code. This amazing tool provides code suggestions to developers. Therefore, it increases developers’ focus on problem-solving and boosts their productivity. While GitHub Copilot can provide helpful suggestions and speed development, it is not a substitute for critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Developers should always review and validate the suggestions provided by Copilot before incorporating them into their projects.

GitHub Copilot has been trained on all publicly available languages. However, the quality of suggestions depends on the volume and diversity of data made available to the AI model for its training. Let’s say Python and JavaScript are widely used in public repositories, so Copilot provides better and higher quality suggestions for these languages than those with lower public representation.

How to use GitHub Copilot

Getting started with Copilot is fairly simple. First, sign into your GitHub account and visit this linkhttps://github.com/features/copilot/plans to access the official GitHub page to buy any plan. We’ll select the ‘Start a free trial’ option and the ‘Get access to GitHub Copilot’ option. From there, we must fill out our billing information and payment method to access GitHub Copilot. We must then install the GitHub Copilot extension on VS Code. Using it, we’ll sign into our GitHub account with Copilot enabled. We’re all set to use it in our IDE. In the coming slides, we have made a main.py file that accepts code suggestions from Copilot. Check it out!

  1. Setting up GitHub Copilot

Choosing the IDE
Choosing the IDE
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  1. Code suggestions by Copilot

Code suggestion by Copilot
Code suggestion by Copilot
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Comparison between ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot

ChatGPT is one of OpenAI’s popular chatbots that entertains user queries. Just like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT can provide code if prompted. Now, we’ll discuss some differences between ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot.

GitHub Copilot

ChatGPT

GitHub Copilots’s main job is to provide code suggestions and completions.

ChatGPT, can be used for tasks other than code completion, like code transformations, providing algorithms, and answering more general queries.

It is better suited for more specific coding tasks.

It is suited for broader queries.

It can be integrated with other applications using plugins or API.

It can be integrated with fewer applications that mostly include IDEs.

Copilot malfunctions in cases where the code example is rare and has limited open-source data available.

ChatGPT may perform poorly if the prompt is ambiguous.

Copilot can provide erroneous results.

ChatGPT can provide erroneous answers.

Limitations of GitHub Copilot

Although GitHub Copilot makes development easier and faster, it still has some limitations:

  • It can be very distracting at times. By providing different suggestions, it can make the developer feel overwhelmed and lose concentration.

  • Code suggestions may contain errors and need to be reviewed by an experienced developer.

  • It may sometimes give irrelevant suggestions.

  • It can give ineffective suggestions, contributing to bad coding practices.

  • Microsoft can claim ownership of our code because we utilized their tool for code suggestions.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, GitHub Copilot is a useful tool to integrate into IDEs. It provides helpful code suggestions and completions, enabling developers to write code efficiently with fewer technical blockers. You should definitely give it a try.

Test your knowledge

Answer the questions below to assess your knowledge. Best of luck!

Assess your learning skills.

1

(Select all that apply.) GitHub Copilot can:

A)

Give code suggestions

B)

Complete codes

C)

Provide pretrained models

D)

Give constructive feedback

Question 1 of 20 attempted

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