Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives?
by giobox on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:49PM
(#32523365)
In what circumstance does Copilot allow you to not hire a junior dev? I like Copilot and find value in it at 10 dollars a month, but that's a dubious claim IMO. What Copilot does only really assists a human operator, and not in a way that meaningfully would allow anyone to reduce headcount. It's a great tool to save some round trips to google for syntax or configuration questions etc, it's unlikely to replace a person (yet...).
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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives?
by muzani on Saturday August 20, 2022 @01:30AM
(#32529386)
I used OpenAI Codex for some recent freelance work. The work was simple - upload a form in JS. When I took the job, I said I'd charge for about 4 hours of work, and they said great, they needed it tomorrow anyway. I realized I needed some help and picked up Codex.
Scope of work for the AI: import jQuery, turn the dummy code into an ajax GET call, pass the clicked data between two pages, turn a PHP form into a JS one, add form validation, setup a POST call, debugging the regex of the phone validation from their backend team.
My scope of work: steal code from Codepen to do some drag and drop file upload and mess with the CSS to have it fit the page.
I actually train JS bootcamps and I'm sure 80% of juniors cannot do this within 4 hours. Nor would the good ones be hireable within such a short timeframe.
But it did help me keep the contract within the time I'm charging for. It was a $125 contract, so it would have been worth the price if it did half the work.