INTEGRATION OF GITHUB COPILOT WITH GITHUB

BENEFIT OF INTEGRATION OF GITHUB COPILOT WITH GITHUB

Integrating Copilot with GitHub brings a range of exciting features that enhance your coding experience:

Key Features of Copilot and GitHub Integration

Adaptation to Repositories: Copilot can adapt to the coding standards and practices of your specific repositories.

Autocompletion and Suggestions:

Contextual Code Suggestions: Copilot can understand your code context and provide intelligent code suggestions as you type.

Autocomplete Code: It can finish lines or entire blocks of code based on your initial input.

Pull Requests and Issues:

Assisted Pull Requests: Copilot can help you draft pull requests by suggesting code snippets and descriptions.

Issue Resolution: It can suggest fixes for issues reported in your repository, making maintenance more efficient.

Documentation and Comments:

Generate Documentation: Copilot can help generate comments and documentation for your code, improving readability and maintainability.

Code Explanation: It can explain code snippets, making it easier to understand complex logic.

Code Review and Quality:

Review Assistance: Copilot can assist in reviewing code by suggesting improvements and catching potential errors.

Test Generation: It can help generate unit tests, ensuring your code is well-tested and robust.

Learning and Adaptation:

Personalized Learning: As you use Copilot, it learns from your coding style and preferences, offering more relevant suggestions over time.

requirement

• Subscription to Copilot. To use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code, you must have an active GitHub Copilot subscription. For information about how to get access to Copilot, see “What is GitHub Copilot?.”
• Visual Studio Code. To use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code, you must have Visual Studio Code installed. For more information, see the Visual Studio Code download page.
• Copilot extension for Visual Studio Code. To use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code, you must install the GitHub Copilot extension. For more information, see “Set up GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code” in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

steps / instructions

INSTALLING GITHUB COPILOT EXTENTION

• Within VSCode open the extension view

• Search for the extension ‘GitHub Copilot‘ and then click on ‘Install‘. Search for GitHub Copilot
• You may then be prompted to enter your GitHub credentials. Click on Sign in to GitHub, then click on Allow and enter your GitHub credentials.
• Install the GitHub Copilot Extension
• Click the Install button next to the GitHub Copilot extension. VSCode will download and install the extension. Sign In to GitHub

• Once the extension is installed, you need to sign in to your GitHub account. You will see a prompt asking you to sign in. Click the Sign in with GitHub button. This will open a browser window where you can log in to your GitHub account and authorize GitHub Copilot.

• It might prompt for authorization request as shown so authorize the same.

• Once we authorize GITHUB extension will get downloaded and will with configured with VSCode and we can see the GITHUB extension icon over bottom right corner of the vscode editor
• Also, once we click on this icon we can see the actual COPILOT menu over the VSCODE

difference between GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat

GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat are both powerful tools designed to assist developers, but they have different functionalities:

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code completion tool that helps developers write code faster and with fewer errors.

• Usage: It integrates directly into your IDE (like Visual Studio Code) and provides real-time code suggestions as you type.
• Features: It can complete entire lines or blocks of code, generate boilerplate code, and even suggest solutions based on the context of your code.
• Focus: It’s primarily focused on improving the coding process by providing smart code suggestions.

GitHub Copilot Chat

GitHub Copilot Chat is designed to provide an interactive chat-based interface for developers to ask questions and receive answers related to their code.

• Usage: It allows developers to engage in a conversation with the AI to understand code snippets, get explanations, and ask for assistance with debugging and problem-solving.
• Features: It can explain code, suggest optimizations, help with debugging, and provide detailed answers to coding questions.
• Focus: It’s geared towards creating a more interactive and educational experience, helping developers understand and improve their code through conversation.

Key Differences

• Interaction Style: Copilot is more about inline code suggestions, while Copilot Chat focuses on conversational interaction.
• Use Case: Use Copilot for quick code completions and suggestions; use Copilot Chat for in-depth explanations and assistance.

Both tools complement each other and can significantly enhance your development experience.