Github Copilot Experience after 6months

Foreword

If you've been playing around with extensions in vscode i think you're familiar with GitHub Copilot. Github Copilot is the closest thing you'll get if you're looking for J.A.R.V.I.S. for coding. It helps you out by providing you solutions for tedious tasks and optimizing your code.

My experience

Ive been using copilot for 6months now and it was probably one of the best tools I ever used(I might be addicted😅). I just got the news yesterday that it will be charged for starting end of August and still contemplating whether I should pay 10$ a month, I mean its ether Stranger Things or Copilot at this point lol.

Anyway I want to talk about the pros and the cons using Copilot. I hear many people saying "Copilot will replace us all" but that's honestly the furthest thing from the truth. It sure does help but it's just a tool, people give AI too much credit but it's a boogyman(at least for now). Maybe they might take over the world one day, but some extension for vscode wont do that now so chill.

Pros

1. Saves time on tests
   It saves soooooo much time when you write unit test. Let's be honest here, we all hate unit tests. I write tests using jest and writing dummy data is just a tedious tasks. Lest say you have a bunch of states or variables that you have to test, you gotta write it all by hand ending up taking hours when you could be watching Netflix. Copilot guesses the answer just by writing the test case(you have to be specific tho).

2. Great for prototyping
   If you want to create a prototype to test out a method or a feature it makes it easier to create a prototype to test if your theory works.

3. Naming variables and methods
   Coming up with names for variables or method can be painful and give you migraines. Copilot helps you mitigate that by reading the code and giving you suggestions using the best possible practice for readability. It works 7 out of 10 times so it's not bad in my opinion.

Cons

1. It's dumb when not trained correctly
2. It's creates clutter when you want to think and breaks your flow
3. It's not good for the juniors and might have bad influence on them.
4. Lets be honest 10$ isn't really a good deal
5. Could take out the joy in programming

Conclusion

If you think 10$ is a good deal go for it. I wouldn't buy it unless my company pays for it. You can ether google or think about it a second more and come up with the solution. I will miss the ease when testing or when making a brand new project but other than that it doesn't really benefit me. Maybe I'm using it wrong lol