GitHub Copilot AI features in Visual Studio BEYOND "just writing code"

[@fenderjazzbrian]

These kind of videos are really helpful for those of us that live in Visual Studio for much of our day.

[@TheTsavoman]

Absolutely love this video - honestly, the production quality (for it being a one person show) is incredible.. Super great deep dive here and really enjoyed this!

[@TCHamilton56]

Thanks much Scott - I really appreciate your curated content and insight - many years of good stuff ++

[@bestehefueralle]

Very nice video. As always, disrupting technologies bring changes of all kinds into the world, good and bad. Seeing you all curious about every corner where Copilot is really helped me consider the other side of the coin-that AI does (or is able to do) more than just harmful things.

[@MarvelousLXVII]

Clicked, liked and subscribed without watching the video because of your C-64 shirt--love it!

[@Dalamain]

I've been meaning to try out Copilot .... 7:52 name suggestions.... I'm sold! 😃 no more second guessting if a name is a good fit.

[@Dalamain]

omg... commit message generation too 😍😍

[@maxaigner5322]

Lol I have seen your talks on the Microsoft Build and thought you should have your own youtube Channel just to realize that you actually have one oO - Keep up the great work and thank you for demonstrating copilot here

[@unhandledexception1948]

Love these nuggets of insight from this channel... Grateful for you being a constant source of inspiration

[@brandon995]

Having CoPilot assist me during code reviews would be a killer feature!

[@farzadmf]

I really wish AI was advertised like this by everyone (as a helper not a replacement); unfortunately, that's not the case

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Problem is sales bods are selling it to Manglement as being able to save money by replacing staff. I've even seen a Microsoft reseller claiming this. And then the other problem is, Manglement believe them.

[@farzadmf]

Exactly, all these layoffs, companies closing etc. because of this STUPID thing!

[@shanselman]

@@TheStevenWhiting Agreed that's not cool and not accurate. It's a CO pilot not an AUTO pilot!

[@rodrigolima206]

Very nice. I actually use the conditional breakpoint all the time. I've been using visual studio for many years now it is very nice to see how it is now. I actually use it more than VScode. Just prefererence, they are both great.

[@michaelmalloy2399]

I did not know about "Rename", very nice.

[@andrewjensen6712]

Love the Tshirt!

[@EddaFredericks]

enterprise-ai AI fixes this. Exploring GitHub Copilot's capabilities.

[@j2csharp]

But, I'm trying to write the next version of Raid on Bungeling Bay for the C64! :) j/k, love the shirt, my first dev experience was creating a ski game on the C64, where you were the "H" (the guy with skis), skiing between the "*" trees, in sixth grade. Started my whole career with that game. * * * H * * *

[@EdThompson]

Love the C64 shirt! I have one myself

[@m3-dev]

love your shirt!!

[@emmanuelduchene]

Nice! Would be interesting to do a parallel test of GitHub Copilot and Pieces Copilot+ (extension or app) with Live Context on to compare the performance

[@shanselman]

good idea

[@heischono4917]

Perhaps "the little man" icon means the Copilot CHAT, while the sparkles icon means just suggestions without activate the chat?

[@scara1701]

You know it's gonna be a serious talk if the glasses get taken off during the first 10 seconds. :)

[@JustMy2CentsButICouldBeWrong]

Love the shirt!

[@holm76]

Love the tshirt. Grown up stuff :)

[@666222333111]

I started using AI heavily recently for all sorts of stuff and it's the smartest and dumbest thing at the same time. Wrote 450 lines of code automation script for something I needed with 0 issues just prompts, then when I asked for control flag so I can have a state it broke the entire thing and after 20 prompts still couldn't fix it.

[@shanselman]

LOL that's so AI. Yes, humans are super needed.

[@AntonArhipov]

Nice t-shirt!

[@carlospacheco2235]

Can it load the entire project into its context? For example ask it to explain the architecture of the solution

[@shanselman]

today it can only see open tabs

[@kjbetz]

@@shanselman So, you're saying there's a chance!? Just open the whole solution in all the tabs!

[@rolphkeune]

In a way you can, use the tag #solution in you're copilot chat... (But I don't know how they implemented this, as in how far the reach is, because from a LLM token perspective I don't think it is able to load you're compleet solution)

[@shanselman]

@@rolphkeuneYa but for super large ones it’ll not look at function bodies (it collapses things to just interfaces, I believe, to fit the context window)

[@fili275]

Hey! So today you can check out the preview feature under Copilot Chat settings- "Enable referencing your #Solution", which is available for C#. This will allow you to use #solution as your additional context to your prompt. While this doesn't include the body of every single file (hello context windows!) it does do a pretty good heuristic of what it thinks would be most relevant to your question at hand. Give it a try and let me know how it goes? Filisha Shah PM Lead, GitHub Copilot in VS.

[@cantis]

Thanks Scott, you're using co-pilot the way I normally do... little extensions, completions, 'delights' etc. all very good. Your suggestion for rubber ducking on the code is good and I like the idea of asking it about idiomatic code analysis! Thanks!

[@shashankkaul]

Hey @shanselman, thanks for the video. Which version of copilot did you have running in this video? Individual, business or enterprise?

[@glennmayer3862]

Where did you get that shirt? My first computer Commodore 64. Great video.

[@petropzqi]

How did you speak in the chat vindow? Is this an extension? I've been looking al over the place for this setting.

[@shanselman]

I press windows key + H

[@jeffmccloud905]

thumb's up for the C64 shirt. POKE 53280,0 : POKE 53281,0 (the original dark mode)

[@KrahsThe]

damn, long time memories locked away

[@fenderjazzbrian]

I won’t even say how long it’s been since I thought about PEEK and POKE

[@jeffmccloud905]

@@fenderjazzbrian I don't remember any PEEK values, but the two POKEs above that change the border and screen color have been burned into my brain since 1983. I also remember that PRINT CHR$(147) would clear the screen

[@FrudTV]

Thanks Scott!

[@adamd3789]

Very cool! What are you using for voice to text?

[@shanselman]

Windows Key + H - it's built into Windows

[@markdav-is]

Nice shirt!

[@socar-pl]

on unrelated note: My wife recently got me P1S printer and since then I got a special regiment of hermetic sealed containers with humidity monitoring and dryers going all day long to dry them out. AMS does not go over 15% of humidty etc etc. At same time Scott casually hangs his filaments just under the TV. I wonder how they print - but maybe - just maybe - he's in luck and lives in sub-saharian like climate so kis HT does not go up that much as at my place. =)

[@shanselman]

I live in Oregon. AMS is at 14%

[@socar-pl]

@@shanselman now I know where all the Sun went ;)

[@FriedmanRSmith]

What is this presentation software you’re using that allows you to drag your self around the screen and zoom in and out so easily? This is definitely not teams.

[@shanselman]

OBS plus Zoomit

[@johnfromireland7551]

Lols! It definitely means sprinkle a little pixie dust!

[@jaricardodev]

Would it work of you ask "explain the selected code"?

[@shanselman]

Absolutely! You can be explicit or implicit. I’ll often select it and say “select this”

[@DawayneKingMusic]

@Scott Henselman, I have been trying to figure out how to enable voice recognition within Visual Studio 2022, but have failed so far. How or what are you using to do that ?

[@shanselman]

Windows Key + H

[@ahmadkharsah]

This is the only video that gives me an objective justification to subscribe to Co-Pilot

[@abhilashja8181]

As a .NET dev like me which AI tool is best for dot net programming? Copilot or ChatGPT ?

[@emmanuelduchene]

Pieces with Claude 3.5

[@markandrews1219]

Is the screen your Benq programming monitor?

[@shanselman]

yes

[@UmmarFarooqMahroof]

I have mini yoda plushy as my "rubber duck". Alas I do not talk to him as much as I should

[@McNerdius]

I have a weird (unused) german scrubber in the shape of a duck. A "Scrubber Ducky" if you will. Helps me clean the code !

[@Joe-SoftwareEngineer]

How did you get the `#` button in `Git Changes\Enter Message` ? My VS only has the Copilot button.

[@BerkArslan-g6o]

Cool video. One small piece of feedback; I find the zooms disorienting and they most of the time show pixelated as you zoom in too much, I would have preferred no zooms and would like to see the whole screen but maybe it's just me..

[@marcobaccaro]

Is it cool that the tools write code for us? That's the end of software craftsmanship: the IDE reading your code and explaining it to you in English. For big companies, replacing and reducing employees radically, perhaps, for the engineers, not really.

[@jnobile]

Love all the neat new feaures in copilot. Most relatable part though was when you *reran* the test after fixing it to be fully green again. :chefs-kiss:

[@jnobile]

Every time Scott puts AI icon chaos on blast, some part of a person on the VS team dies a little inside knowing they fought the good fight and lost to the marketing folks.

[@jnobile]

recent happy moment with copilot was pretty simple, but delightful. I was just looking to see if two sets intersected and had a `x.Any(y => y.Contains(x))` and thought "there must be a better way" so asked copilot and sure enough: `x.Overlaps(y)`. There is so much in LINQ and it keeps getting better, so I am happy copilot is there to help me keep learning.

[@juleswombat5309]

I am now just a hobby/ retired developer , so cannot justify the subscription costs. I guess I am happy that completed my rewarding career in software. These kind of technologies will mean that only the top 5% of talented software engineers will have a career. The tech industry layoff are demonstrating that going into Software is no longer a guaranteed future career. But it has been a good ride, and I would guess that a lot of industry & society has been frustrated at all the development costs diverted into software over the last forty years.

[@GertZA]

It's a pity my work doesn't allow for GitHub Copilot because of privacy concerns

[@shanselman]

Interesting. What are their concerns? How can I help

[@markvader]

I'm in a similar situation, it's always a paranoia that company code or client code/data will leak out. It will get the okay eventually but never fast enough. I use it a lot personally and it's so valuable. Thanks for the great video, I cant wait to use the commit message generation ❤

[@kalan4787]

I've never understood the push for idiotmatic code. Unless you are actually *WANTING* your code to be easily interpretable by large, automated information aggregation models, idiotmatic code is the wrong way to go.

[@alirezanet]

until it doesn't know the whole context I don't find it useful ... this is not much different than asking chat GPT but these models should automatically scan the project and understand it

[@ONESTTEFTEO]

Cody + Sonnet 3.5 + JetBrains Rider = Living my life a dev

[@allesnichts8244]

Why we have to look at you? It’s more important to see what you explain… currently you hide that often 😢

[@BharatKumarBellamkonda]

Can you ask github team stop giving too much unnecessary control to corporates. My corp disabled github chat and completion also limited to 2 or 3 lines.😢. After multiple approvals they enabled cli copilot, still getting approval for chat is such a headache, my corporate is not budging.

[@punkouter24]

look at cursor ai .. github copilot is getting left in the past

[@bestehefueralle]

Getting left in the past? Copilot is still getting developed (and very very actively). I'd like to think that competition is getting tougher, and our options for AI assistants getting richer, which is always a great thing

[@punkouter24]

@@bestehefueralle I hope so. As a .NET dev I want github copilot to be good but right now CURSOR AI seems to be taking over.