GitHub Copilot is a new AI-powered tool that can help you write code faster and more efficiently. It uses OpenAI’s Codex language model to generate code suggestions based on your current code, comments, and other contextual information.
To use GitHub Copilot, you first need to have a GitHub account. Once you have an account, you can purchase a subscription to GitHub Copilot. There is a free trial available, so you can try it out before you commit to a subscription.
As of now, paid subscription cost around $10/month or $100/yr. Depending on how much you use it, it might be worth it for you.
Table of contents
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Supported IDEs
As Github is leading platform for open-sourced development community, it’s services is mostly supported in lots of IDEs, and Editors, via plugin.
Supported Programming Languages
Github Copilot does support lots of programming languages and frameworks, to serve us better. Few of them mentioned below.
- Python
- JS/TS
- Go
- Ruby
- C#
- C++
- Java
- PHP
- Swift
- Kotlin
- Scala
- Visual Basic
- SQL
- CSS/SCSS
- HTML
- Shell
- Bash
- Makefile
Copilot is still under development, so the list of supported languages is subject to change. However, the languages listed above are the ones that GitHub Copilot has been trained on the most, so they are the ones that it will be able to generate the most accurate and helpful suggestions for.
Additional Notes
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The quality of suggestions may vary depending on the language. For example, GitHub Copilot is better at generating suggestions for Python and JavaScript than it is for PHP and Scala.
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GitHub Copilot may not be able to generate suggestions for all features of a language. For example, it may not be able to generate suggestions for code that uses a specific library or framework.
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Copilot is still under development, so it is possible that it will make mistakes. It is important to always review the suggestions that GitHub Copilot generates before using them. Same goes to AWS CodeWhisperer too.
Step by Step Guide
Now, let’s proceed with the step-by-step guide to set up Github Copilot in your preferred IDE. However, here I’ll be showing you only for Visual Studio Code. (Other IDE’s Setup would be mostly similar)
- Open Visual Studio Code.
- Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar on the side.
- Search for Github Copilot in the Extensions Marketplace.
- Install the extension and restart Visual Studio Code if prompted.
- It will open up a new tab with all the intructions to getting started.
- As soon as you sing in to your Github Account, and have a valid subscription for Github Copilot, you’re good to go.
- Then, Start Coding 💻 !!
You might notice in VSCode, in the right side of buttom bar, Github Copilot logo is Enabled.
With the setup completed, you can now start using Github Copilot directly in your faviourite IDE. Create a new project or open an existing one. The Copilot extension will provide various options such as code editing, code execution, debugging, and boost your productivity to 10x.
Tips to use GitHub Copilot
- Start with a clear idea of what you want to code. The better you can articulate your intent, the better GitHub Copilot will be able to generate suggestions.
- Use comments to help GitHub Copilot understand your code. For example, you can use comments to describe the purpose of a function or to provide additional information about the code.
- Provide feedback to GitHub Copilot. If you don’t like a suggestion, you can reject it and provide feedback to GitHub Copilot. This will help GitHub Copilot learn your preferences and generate better suggestions in the future.
Conclusion
GitHub Copilot is a powerful tool that can help you write code faster and more efficiently. With a little practice, you’ll be able to use GitHub Copilot to write code that is both accurate and efficient. In case of any issues, refer to original docs.
I hope this blog post helps you get started with GitHub Copilot. Let me know if you have any questions.