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title	date	lastmod	toc	comments	authors	categories	tags	series	resources
Experimenting with GitHub Copilot	2021-11-06T23:56:47-05:00	2021-11-08T21:46:39-06:00	true	true	bbaovanc	experiments	github-copilot programming	github-copilot-experiments	name src title feature boba-shop.webp GitHub Copilot tends to repeat stuff. src rust-poem.webp src python-twinkle-poem.webp src horrible-code.webp src dropdown-css.webp src boba-shop-size.webp src boba-shop-color.webp src girlfriend.webp src cheese-burger-poem.webp src sing.webp src what-is-boba.webp src what-is-github-copilot.webp src what-is-the-purpose-of-this-file.webp src who-is-steve-jobs.webp

I decided to play around with GitHub Copilot. Here's some of the code that I got as a result.

Poems

First, I tried to get Copilot to write me a poem in Rust. It didn't really work.

{{< figure src="rust-poem.webp" />}}

So, I tried Python instead.

{{< figure src="python-twinkle-poem.webp" />}}

This is where I realized that Copilot was doing a little more than just repeating code it had seen before verbatim.

Before this testing, my understanding was that Copilot was sort of like a search engine. It looked at the context and found a piece of code from GitHub that matched the functionality you wanted. This was the reason I had such a negative opinion about it. I saw it as a way to easily violate copyleft licenses such as GPLv3.

Anyways, back to more testing.

Horrible code

I decided to ask it to generate some horrible code for me. Unfortunately, it didn't quite do what I wanted.

{{< figure src="horrible-code.webp" />}}

Solving problems in bobatheme

I decided to consult Copilot on how to make a nice CSS dropdown, which I need for the language picker in bobatheme.

{{< figure src="dropdown-css.webp" />}}

Maybe I'll have to test it out.

Making a boba shop

Now, I asked Copilot for help on creating a new boba shop, which got a little spammy.

{{< figure src="boba-shop.webp" />}}

{{< figure src="boba-shop-size.webp" />}}

More random code

I got some ideas of important questions to ask Copilot thanks to the conversations going on in Discord.

{{< figure src="girlfriend.webp" />}}

Turns out the API endpoint in that code is real, and returns a (presumably) nonexistent person.

Another poem

I decided to generate one more poem, this time naming the function something different in hopes of getting a different result.

{{< figure src="cheese-burger-poem.webp" />}}

It was a success! And the output of the program:

Mary had a little lamb.
Its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went.
..........
Cheese Burger

A song

I decided to try and get it to sing a song.

{{< figure src="sing.webp" />}}

According to Google Translate, here's what that says:

def sing():
    print("""
    You are my little pig
    I love you
    You are my little pig
    I love you
    """)

GitHub Copilot as an encyclopedia

I decided to ask Copilot a few random questions to test its encyclopedia abilities.

{{< figure src="what-is-boba.webp" />}}

{{< figure src="what-is-github-copilot.webp" />}}

{{< figure src="who-is-steve-jobs.webp" />}}

I had run out of questions to ask, so I just started the comment with a generic "what is" and let Copilot finish the question and answer.

{{< figure src="what-is-the-purpose-of-this-file.webp" />}}

That last line came out of nowhere!