I use VS Code and GitHub Co-pilot and develop in a variety of different languages and frameworks. I’ve got lots of experience with some, but I’m less knowledgeable on others.

So, having the AI assist with languages I am very familiar with is basically a way to save time and preserve my mental energy. For languages and frameworks I’m less experienced with, it speeds things up because I’m not having to constantly search how-tos and forums for guidance. And for languages/frameworks I have limited or no experience with, it can be a helpful learning tool that speeds up how long it takes to get ramped up.

With this set-up, if I start writing a line of code and then pause for a moment, co-pilot kicks in and tries to autocomplete that line, sometimes even suggests the entire block of code. It’s really good at recognizing simple patterns and common boilerplate stuff. It’s less good at figuring out more complex stuff, though.

However, I find that if I start out by writing a comment that explains what I’m trying to accomplish, and to some degree how to accomplish it before I start writing one of those more complex blocks/lines, the AI has a much higher success rate in returning helpful, functioning code. So, basically yes, I write the comment to describe code I haven’t written, and I’ll let the AI take over from there.

This works for code, raw database queries, configuration files, and even for writing tests. I’m not an expert at building out Docker configurations for local development or configuring auto-deployment on whatever random system is being used for a project, but I can often get those things up and running just by describing in comments what I need and what I’m trying to accomplish.

The VS Code co-pilot extension also has some context menu items that let you ask questions and/or ask for suggestions, which comes in handy for some things, but for me, typing out my intentions in comments and then letting the auto-complete kick in as I’m starting a line of code is faster, more efficient, and seems to work better.

Granted, co-pilot also likes to try to auto-complete comments, so that’s sometimes funny just to read what it “thinks” I’m trying to do. And most of the time, I do remove my comments that were specifically to guide co-pilot on what I wanted it to do if they’re super redundant. And, at the end of the day, not everything co-pilot suggests is production-worthy, functional, nor does what I actually described. In fact, a lot of it is not, so you should expect to go back and fine tune things at a minimum. It’s just that overall, it’s good enough that even with all the supervision and revisions I have to make, it’s still a net positive, for now.

As a kid, by the time I started hearing about the system via video game magazines, which were kind of like miniature websites but printed on paper and then distributed via mail and stores, I was convinced it would be the next big thing. By the time it was launched, I knew it was going to be the new top dog in the industry. When I finally got my hands on one, it was (pardon the pun) game changing for me.

The system definitely had its flaws, but it was an evolutionary step up and order of magnitude bigger than anything I’d ever experienced before.

And go figure, it was the last system I owned before I stepped away from the gaming hobby for nearly 2 decades. Life, uh, got in the way.

I know some folks are joking about and dunking on this, but in modern times, I have justification. Call me lazy, but I have found myself writing out these comments and then letting the AI take over to at least give me a sketch of an implementation. Works reasonably well and saves me a lot of time and effort. Mostly I don’t bother to remove them, though I usually edit them a bit.

On the other hand, there are factions within my colleagues who steadfastly insist that commenting is unnecessary and to some degree even potentially harmful, and that if you feel the need to comment your code, it means your code should be improved so that it’s obvious what it is doing without the need for comments.

I definitely miss the cached pages. I found that I was using the feature very frequently. Maybe it’s just the relative obscurity of some of my hobbies and interests, but a lot of the information online that shows up in search engines seems to come from old forums. Often times those old forums are no longer around or have migrated to new software (obliterating the old URLs and old posts as well).

Caffeine these days.

Lemming is the correct answer, but I’ll also accept Lemmin’ mostly because I’d love for there to be some kind of meet-up, like a Lemmin’ Party or something.

When I was a kid, I watched this and Labyrinth so much. I’m pretty sure I have both on dvd if not bluray. I feel like I need to pull them out.

Children of Men is so good. I love this thread because I’m seeing mentions of so many great movies that I used to watch all the time but I realize it’s been ages since I’ve last seen them.

I love this movie! So much fun.

Yes, yes, yes. I don’t get to watch it often these days, but it’s always so much fun. Now go away, I’m baitin’.

Grandma’s Boy

I haven’t seen that movie in ages, but I have watched it many times. The scene that really gets me is when they clean under the sofa and there are numerous cat carcasses.

I don’t have a cat.

I have a weird-ish cat that sometimes follows me on my walks. I’m his best friend when we’re hiking buddies. When I see him on the trail, he’s all meowing at me, rubbing up against my legs trying to get me to pet him. And if I stop petting him, he bites me. So that makes me think I’m special.

But, if I happen to go over to my neighbor’s house (his owner), he won’t come near me. He runs off if I try to speak to him or coax him to come over to me.

Till next time I see him on the trail, and we’re back to love bites and heavy petting.

Fellas, does women having normal biological functions make you feel homosexual?

If you offer me a chance to win millions of dollars and all I have to pay is $2 USD and the date happens to be Friday the 13th, then there’s a good chance I’m going to pay you the $2 USD for the chance to will millions of dollars so long as you’re a legitimate lottery that I’m legally allowed to play.

No. And he’s not just mad at cat ladies.

This whole idea that people with biological children are more invested in the future of the country than those without kids is just a thinly disguised dog whistle that’s firmly rooted in misogyny and homophobia.

This is a line that theoretically doesn’t precisely and specifically just target homosexuals, there’s also “collateral damage” to infertile couples and those who choose to go child-free. And there’s a sufficient number of those people that it serves as the basis for plausible deniability. That they specifically call out “cat ladies” fully reflects the misogynistic aspects of it. But make no mistake, this is undeniably a basis they might use to deny rights to the LGBT+ community.

It’s really a shame that we have a state in my country named Ohio, but not one named Obyeo. So that would be my wish. For my country to have an Obyeo.

I’m into this. And the corollary. “Shit out” is redundant. Shit it out. Shitting out.

(Shitting in?) Makes sense in one context, but that’s a completely different context than that which shitting out is typically used.

I was alive when the when there were more than 8 elevens.

When I post something totally innocuous on Lemmy that I’d think nobody would ever take exception to, I generally only get 2 or fewer “AAAAAAAKSCHUALLLLY” type replies that I can see so long as I stay away from the crazy Lemmy instances and communities and block enough of the insane users who still manage to break through.

On Reddit, there’s much more "AAAAAAAKSCHUALLLLY"s and no upper limit known thus far, sometimes with dozens of people repeating more or less the same “AAAAAAAKSCHUALLLLY” but perhaps worded slightly differently.

I recently joined WTF and based on the list of the instances this place is federated with, my assumption is that’s the basis for the WTF name. So, maybe something like this could be useful for choosing an instance that’s not 1/2 filled with bat shit insane posts by default rather than requiring significant and immediate curation (i.e. blocking stupid shit like hexbear and ml).