Among the solutions that first offered a valid tool for write programming code and improve developer productivity there is certainly GitHub Copilot. Suffice it to say that such a tool arrived on the market even before ChatGPT.
Just over a year later, in September 2023, the new GitHub Copilot Chat unlocked the ability to use the natural language in software development activities. Effectively allowing developers to converse with their code in real time, which is also very useful for operations debugging e testing.
A native development environment: GitHub Copilot Workspace
The popular software project hosting service, GitHub, now takes a further step forward. Under the guidance of Microsoft, which owns it, developers can now take advantage of a native development environment for Copilot, usable to do brainstormingplan, create, test, and execute code using natural language.
The platform just presented is called GitHub Copilot Workspace and, as the name suggests, it is an intelligent “workspace” that eliminates all the obstacles that stood between the conception of a program and its actual implementation.
Think about the challenge that every programmer must face every time they start working on a new project. GitHub Copilot Workspace lends a hand to each developer already in this embryonic phase: counting on the “consultancy” of the tool based on artificial intelligence, it is possible to obtain assistance and reduce the time required to create a software from the very first moment.
The development plan proposed by Copilot Workspace
Precisely on the basis of the requirements imposed by the developer, with the objective of including the various features in the program being created, Copilot Workspace takes care of defining a plan starting from its knowledge base. The system offers everything the developer needs, proposing an immediately understandable list, using natural language.
Everything Copilot Workspace offers, from the plan to the code, is completely editable. In short, the developer retains full autonomy on the path he thinks is best and on the code best suited to solving a problem.
L’code execution takes place directly within Copilot Workspace: in this way it is possible to verify, step by step, the behavior of the application under development.
Each workspace can also be shared with other team members: collaborators can in turn control the behavior of the software and apply any changes.
GitHub’s goal is to bring 1 billion developers to the platform
Early last year, GitHub celebrated the first 100 million developers registered on the platform. With Copilot Workspace, GitHub’s goal is to democratize programming making it accessible even to those with limited knowledge.
The company explains this concept better: “we are accelerating towards a near future where a billion people on GitHub they will control a car as easily as they ride a bicycle“.
GitHub leaders note that we live in a world where professional developers they are in short supply. At the same time, however, many workflows directly depend on these precious figures. The idea is that with tools like Copilot Workspace we can break down barriers and make development activities more understandable and accessible, for a much larger audience of users.
Fortunately, GitHub’s position appears very different from the one recently taken by Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA. Since artificial intelligence now exists, according to Huang it would no longer be necessary to learn to program.
As we’ve highlighted several times, AI can help, and tools like Copilot Workspace provide some truly wonderful support to be more productive. But it’s a long way from here to saying that it is possible to avoid acquiring programming skills.
Copilot Workspace reduces a lot of the work but you need to be aware of what you are doing
Developers, you can’t improvise. And if anything, artificial intelligence helps to improve the way of programming, without however moving away from the DevSecOps perspective.
On the other hand, GitHub itself observes the following: “By measurably reducing standard work, we will enable professional developers to increasingly function as systems designers“. In other words, it is not in any case regardless of developing a computational thinking which will allow professional developers to benefit from the help of the machine (AI) to create more secure software in less time (for example, avoiding the creation of software from scratch routine Basic).
GitHub managers are also certain that a tool like Copilot Workspace will also help stem the problem of stratification of the software. All over the world, developers add millions of lines of code every day to systems that are becoming increasingly complex. At the same time, we tend to lose control over the maintenance of older code. Copilot Workspace, in GitHub’s sights, will help keep the bar straight and ensure that the code is always editable, improveable and optimizable. Even when people change in the company.
To preview Copilot Workspace you can register on this page by clicking on Join the waitlist.