Today, we're going to talk about one more of the many mindlowing moments we're privy to as we live through the generative AI revolution.
First, review this post where I described the requirements for a "new post" script.
Recall that I took some time to implement it with the help of ChatGPT.
Now, review this screenshot:
This is a screenshot of GitHub Copilot's new multi-line "Edit" mode. It performed all the steps of the "new post" script with the minimal prompt: "Create blank blog post for 2025-02-08". (Notice for later that it's working set of files already included the relevant files.)
The point is that whereas I previously would have needed to write and run a script, perhaps one brittle to changes in my workflow, now I can speak my end goal briefly to Copilot and it will determine and labor through all the required changes.
I'm not going to say that "scripting is dead", since Copilot and its brethren may well script prolifically in the near future. But human scripting is nearing the horizon.
Okay, fine. Was this too easy because I pre-specified the relevant working files?
Let's turn to "Agent" mode and ask it to help me find the blog posts linked above. I don't remember exactly what day I wrote the requirements for my script. Can Copilot find that for me and insert the link?
Yes, it can.
This is not a "chatbot answering questions akin to Google Search". This is not a glorified IntelliSense autocomplete "code completion" tool. This is a worker that receives my task, reads all the relevant code in the codebase, and completes the task for me.
This is bonkers. I am blown away. I have to learn how to code all over again. Can I click through my old files until I find the right one? Can I then type out an anchor tag to the right file? Yes... but it is error prone, slow, and annoying. I add no value by doing that work manually.
In case you're concerned that's a fluke:
And then, of course, I wanted to add these screenshots, so I put the files in the right place in the repo, left a blank line under the p tag and said: "Link to screenshot-0.png", which you'll notice isn't even correct(!), yet Copilot interpreted my intent and wrote the img tag correctly.
This will re-orient the way all of us code. The way all of us do anything.