I would agree with this in general. The main goal here is to optimize the "editor experience". When I personally code, I'll have ChatGPT pulled up on the side in case I need to reference it for speed. Some examples of how I might use it are:
- add some tests for me to review - take an existing piece of code and modify it in some way - help me think of ways in which I can write some code if I'm lazy that day.
This would generate code that after I iterate on it would need to be reviewed which speaks to your point, "you'll need to have an engineer at least look over the code anyway" which I agree with.
The main goal is to have it there as a resource to pair program with rather than trusting it without review/input.
The value added is that you don't send your source code to OpenAI and/or their parent org Microsoft.
Recently I've been using git diff and asking 3.5 to write the PR description for me and so far it is doing quite well. The 16k tokens means I can feed even more into it.
I have. And I'm sure others have too. I dare say there are many who probably _shouldn't_ be using it because of privacy/IP concerns and so you won't hear about them.
> cute novelty [...]
I thought the same not so long ago. But gpt4 for me was a game changer. It's helped me debug and fix some legitimately complex code, and has been awesome at wholesale refactoring modules to fulfil a new purpose. E.g. today I wanted help reconciling between runtime and persistent LRU cache stuff. And it understood what I wanted and assisted. After a few nudges it gave me a refactored module with comments and a few tests. It's like having a very capable junior dev in one's pocket :P
Ps. Trust me: it's not long before we have ai coding bots that grab open tickets and hammer together PRs with full testing suites. I imagine it's already happening.
Not quite, that I know of, but some of us are working on it :)
I have a feeling that while the glorious future you describe can probably be realized using LLMs as a foundational technology, the software engineering effort needed to get there is on par with other AI moonshot projects e.g. autonomous vehicles.
If you or others reading this are interested in this topic, see this post for some interesting discussion and links to projects in development (and in the comments there's a link to a Discord server that was set up for further discussion): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36422730
But I use it when I'm lazy, tired or at times drinking.
And then it's really nice. At times it costs me too much time solving it's mistakes. But then it nails something perfectly and I'm impressed again.
It's useful to recognize when a dialog is a dead-end, otherwise it's easy to enter a rabbit hole that the llm can't get out of. Best to poke at it from another angle and/or within a new dialog, then.
Where did anyone say it was?
hi, can you write me a function in rust that, if running on windows:
1. figures out if the topmost window is a windows explorer window
2. if it's a windows explorer window, it returns the path (as a string) that the windows explorer window is actively viewing
3. if it's not a windows explorer window, it returns a blank string
#[cfg(windows)]
fn get_active_explorer_path() -> String {
use std::ptr;
use winapi::um::winuser::{EnumWindows, GetWindowTextW, IsWindowVisible};
use winapi::shared::windef::HWND;
use std::os::raw::c_int;
use std::ffi::OsString;
use std::os::windows::ffi::OsStringExt;
let mut path = String::new();
let mut active_explorer = None;
unsafe extern "system" fn enum_windows_callback(hwnd: HWND, lparam: LPARAM) -> c_int {
let active_explorer = &mut *(lparam as *mut Option<HWND>);
let mut buffer: [u16; 512] = [0; 512];
if IsWindowVisible(hwnd) != 0 && GetWindowTextW(hwnd, buffer.as_mut_ptr(), 512) != 0 {
let window_title = OsString::from_wide(&buffer[..]).to_string_lossy();
if window_title == "File Explorer" {
*active_explorer = Some(hwnd);
return 0; // Stop enumeration
}
}
1 // Continue enumeration
}
unsafe {
EnumWindows(Some(enum_windows_callback), &mut active_explorer as *mut _ as LPARAM);
}
if let Some(hwnd) = active_explorer {
let mut buffer: [u16; 512] = [0; 512];
if GetWindowTextW(hwnd, buffer.as_mut_ptr(), 512) != 0 {
let window_title = OsString::from_wide(&buffer[..]).to_string_lossy();
if window_title == "File Explorer" {
let shell32 = winapi::um::shellapi::GetShellWindow();
if shell32 != hwnd {
let mut path_buffer: [u16; 512] = [0; 512];
if winapi::um::shellapi::SHGetPathFromIDListW(ptr::null_mut(), path_buffer.as_mut_ptr()) != 0 {
let path_str = OsString::from_wide(&path_buffer[..]).to_string_lossy();
path = path_str.into_owned();
}
}
}
}
}
path
}
#[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
fn get_active_finder_path() -> String {
use std::ptr;
use objc::runtime::{Class, Object};
use objc::{class, msg_send, sel, sel_impl};
use objc_id::Id;
let mut path = String::new();
unsafe {
let workspace: Id<Object> = msg_send![class!(NSWorkspace), sharedWorkspace];
let front_window: Id<Object> = msg_send![workspace, frontmostApplication];
let front_window_pid: u32 = msg_send![front_window, processIdentifier];
let running_apps: Id<Object> = msg_send![workspace, runningApplications];
let app_count: usize = msg_send![running_apps, count];
for i in 0..app_count {
let app: Id<Object> = msg_send![running_apps, objectAtIndex: i];
let app_pid: u32 = msg_send![app, processIdentifier];
if app_pid == front_window_pid {
let bundle_url: Id<Object> = msg_send![app, bundleURL];
let bundle_path: *const Object = msg_send![bundle_url, path];
let path_str: *const i8 = msg_send![bundle_path, UTF8String];
if !path_str.is_null() {
let c_str = std::ffi::CStr::from_ptr(path_str);
path = c_str.to_string_lossy().to_string();
}
break;
}
}
}
path
}
#[cfg(not(target_os = "macos"))]
fn get_active_finder_path() -> String {
String::new()
}
fn main() {
let active_finder_path = get_active_finder_path();
println!("Active Finder Path: {}", active_finder_path);
}
So what is ML code generation useful for? Apart from helping on the Nth CRUD app someone's building, I just don't see it.
The real value proposition of GPT isn't that it can solve really hard problems. The value proposition is that it's about as capable as a junior engineer, except it can write code much faster than any junior engineer, so it can speed you along on the boilerplate-y parts of coding that otherwise would be a lot of manual effort. It's especially useful for things that feel "easy" but which I don't have the relevant domain expertise. For instance, the other day I needed to write a fairly trivial shell script to parse some JSON files. I never write shell scripts and I always forget the syntax, but GPT wrote it correctly on the first try. That probably saved me 20-30 minutes of googling for how to do things like read files, etc in shell scripts.
It’s useful for average things and concepts we might be unfamiliar with.
It’s of limited use, if not utterly useless, for most things a senior would have a hard time wrapping their head around.
And where it really shines, is when adapting an answer you’d otherwise look for on Google to your code, context, and constraints.
ChatGPT is not really equipped to do this level of code design because there are too many steps for it to handle at once. It can handle your instructions if it could first write a detailed design spec, then write code and unit tests, then run them, read the compiler output, and iteratively make changes.
IOW, this would require a purpose-built solution which uses ChatGPT's underlying engine to take your list of requirements and turn them into built and tested code.
There's no code design going on here. My solution was literally just going through like 100 StackOverflow answers & Microsoft's god-awful documentation to get the 50 lines of code that does what I need it to do.
In fact, this is precisely what I'd hope ChatGPT would be good for. Most of my final code is simply copy-pasted from SO/example repos/official docs. He's the correct function (comments added by me so I'll know wtf this is meant to do when I look at it again in 3 months).
fn get_context_path() -> Result<String, Error> {
unsafe {
// Init COM libraries in this thread
CoInitializeEx(Some(ptr::null()), COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED | COINIT_DISABLE_OLE1DDE)?;
// CabinetWClass is the Explorer window class
let class = s!("CabinetWClass");
let topmost_explorer = FindWindowA(class, None);
let foreground_window = GetForegroundWindow();
// Breadcrumbs IFF topmost window is an explorer window
if topmost_explorer == foreground_window {
let windows: IShellWindows = CoCreateInstance(&ShellWindows, None, CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER)?;
let unk_enum = windows._NewEnum()?;
let enum_variant: IEnumVARIANT = unk_enum.cast::<IEnumVARIANT>()?;
// Iterate through all IShellWindows
loop {
let mut fetched = 0;
let mut var: [VARIANT; 1] = [VARIANT::default(); 1];
let hr = enum_variant.Next(&mut var, &mut fetched);
// No more windows?
if hr == S_FALSE || fetched == 0 {
break;
}
// Not an IDispatch interface?
if var[0].Anonymous.Anonymous.vt != VT_DISPATCH {
continue;
}
// We should be able to turn an IShellWindow into an IShellBrowser
let shell_browser: IShellBrowser = IUnknown_QueryService(
var[0]
.Anonymous
.Anonymous
.Anonymous
.pdispVal
.as_ref()
.unwrap(),
&SID_STopLevelBrowser,
)?;
let shell_window = shell_browser.GetWindow()?;
// NOTE: The window we're matching with is actually the shell's parent
// Given that windows can be tabbed, we want to make sure the parent is the top
if GetParent(shell_window) == topmost_explorer {
let shell_view = shell_browser.QueryActiveShellView()?;
// Do some COM finagling, including a QueryInterface cast,
// until we get the folder path we're looking at
let folder_view: IFolderView = shell_view.cast::<IFolderView>()?;
let folder: IPersistFolder2 = folder_view.GetFolder::<IPersistFolder2>()?;
let curr_folder = folder.GetCurFolder()?;
// NOTE: This fails on non SYSPATH paths (e.g. "Home" or "Recent")
let path = SHGetNameFromIDList(curr_folder, SIGDN_FILESYSPATH)?;
let result = path.to_string()?;
// To figure out what path we're on (e.g. what tab is active), we try to match the
// parent title with the folder
// FIXME: Unless using full paths as titles, we can have ambiguities here
let mut title: [u16; 512] = [0; 512];
let len = GetWindowTextW(topmost_explorer, &mut title);
let title = String::from_utf16_lossy(&title[..len as usize]);
// We found the proper tab (child)
if result.contains(&title) {
// Cleanup COM & return path result
CoUninitialize();
return Ok(result);
// Must be another one (or something went wrong)
} else {
continue;
}
}
}
}
// Cleanup COM & fallback to blank string
CoUninitialize();
return Ok(String::from(""));
}
}---
Sure, let's break down the problem:
1. Identify the topmost window: We can use the `winapi` crate in Rust to interact with the Windows API. The function `GetForegroundWindow` can be used to get a handle to the topmost window.
2. Check if the window is a Windows Explorer window: We can use the `GetClassNameW` function to get the class name of the window. If the window is a Windows Explorer window, the class name should be `CabinetWClass`.
3. Get the path of the active folder in the Windows Explorer window: This is a bit more complex. We can use the `SHGetPathFromIDListW` function from the Shell API to get the path from an item ID list. However, getting the item ID list for the active folder in a Windows Explorer window is not straightforward. We might need to use COM interfaces like `IShellWindows` to get the `IWebBrowserApp` for the window, and then use `IWebBrowserApp::LocationURL` to get the URL of the active folder.
4. Return the path as a string or a blank string: This is straightforward. We just need to convert the path to a string and return it, or return a blank string if the window is not a Windows Explorer window.
Here is a skeleton of the function in Rust:
```rust
extern crate winapi;
use std::ptr;
use std::ffi::OsString;
use std::os::windows::ffi::OsStringExt;
use winapi::um::winuser::{GetForegroundWindow,
GetClassNameW};
use winapi::um::shellapi::SHGetPathFromIDListW;
use winapi::shared::minwindef::MAX_PATH;
fn get_active_folder_path() -> String {
// Get the topmost window
let hwnd = unsafe { GetForegroundWindow() };
// Get the class name of the window
let mut class_name = vec![0u16; MAX_PATH + 1];
unsafe {
GetClassNameW(hwnd, class_name.as_mut_ptr(), class_name.len() as i32);
}
// Convert the class name to a string
let class_name = OsString::from_wide(&class_name)
.to_string_lossy()
.into_owned();
// Check if the window is a Windows Explorer window
if class_name.starts_with("CabinetWClass") {
// TODO: Get the item ID list for the active folder in the Windows Explorer window
// TODO: Use SHGetPathFromIDListW to get the path from the item ID list
// TODO: Convert the path to a string and return it
}
// If the window is not a Windows Explorer window, return a blank string
"".to_string()
}
```
---
It's not perfect at "zero-shot" answers but from my experience is very good when you work with it conversationally.
extern crate winapi;
use std::ptr::null_mut;
use winapi::shared::guiddef::{CLSID, IID};
use winapi::um::combaseapi::{CoInitialize, CoCreateInstance};
use winapi::um::shobjidl_core::CLSID_ShellWindows;
use winapi::um::winuser::GetForegroundWindow;
use winapi::Interface;
use winapi::shared::winerror::{HRESULT, SUCCEEDED};
use winapi::um::exdisp::IWebBrowser2;
use winapi::um::unknwnbase::IUnknown;
use winapi::um::oleidl::IDispatch;
use winapi::shared::wtypes::BSTR;
use winapi::um::winnt::LPCWSTR;
use winapi::shared::ntdef::VOID; // Helper function to convert a wide string to a Rust string
wide_to_string(wide: &[u16]) -> String {
OsString::from_wide(&wide)
.to_string_lossy()
.into_owned() // Helper function to convert BSTR to Rust String
fn bstr_to_string(bstr: BSTR) -> String {
unsafe {
let length = winapi::um::oleauto::SysStringLen(bstr) as usize;
let slice = std::slice::from_raw_parts(bstr, length);
wide_to_string(slice)
} fn main() {
unsafe {
// Initialize COM
let hr = CoInitialize(null_mut());
if SUCCEEDED(hr) {
let mut shell_windows_ptr: *mut IUnknown = null_mut();
let shell_windows_iid: IID = IShellWindows::uuidof();
let shell_windows_clsid: CLSID = CLSID_ShellWindows;
// Create IShellWindows instance
let hr = CoCreateInstance(
&shell_windows_clsid,
null_mut(),
winapi::um::combaseapi::CLSCTX_ALL,
&shell_windows_iid,
&mut shell_windows_ptr as *mut _ as _,
);
if SUCCEEDED(hr) {
let shell_windows_dispatch: &IDispatch = &*(shell_windows_ptr as *mut IDispatch);
let hwnd = GetForegroundWindow() as LPCWSTR;
// Get Item of IShellWindows
let mut result = null_mut();
let mut params = winapi::um::oaidl::DISPPARAMS {
cArgs: 1,
cNamedArgs: 0,
rgvarg: &mut winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG {
n1: winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG_0 {
n2: winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG_0_0 {
vt: winapi::um::oaidl::VT_I4 as u16,
wReserved1: 0,
wReserved2: 0,
wReserved3: 0,
n3: winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG_0_0_0 {
lVal: hwnd as _,
}
}
}
},
rgdispidNamedArgs: null_mut(),
};
shell_windows_dispatch.Invoke(
winapi::um::exdisp::DISPID_ISHELLWINDOWS_ITEM,
&winapi::shared::guiddef::IID_NULL,
winapi::um::winnls::LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT,
winapi::um::oaidl::DISPATCH_METHOD,
&mut params,
&mut result,
null_mut(),
null_mut(),
);
// Convert result to IWebBrowser2
let web_browser2: &IWebBrowser2 = &*(result.pdispVal as *mut IWebBrowser2);
// Get LocationURL property of IWebBrowser2
let mut location_url: BSTR = null_mut();
web_browser2.get_LocationURL(&mut location_url);
let path = bstr_to_string(location_url);
println!("Path: {}", path);
} else {
println!("Failed to create IShellWindows instance.");
}
} else {
println!("Failed to initialize COM.");
}
}
extern crate winapi;
// Helper function to convert a wide string to a Rust string fn wide_to_string(wide: &[u16]) -> String { OsString::from_wide(&wide) .to_string_lossy() .into_owned() }
// Helper function to convert BSTR to Rust String fn bstr_to_string(bstr: BSTR) -> String { unsafe { let length = winapi::um::oleauto::SysStringLen(bstr) as usize; let slice = std::slice::from_raw_parts(bstr, length); wide_to_string(slice) } }
fn main() { unsafe { // Initialize COM let hr = CoInitialize(null_mut());
if SUCCEEDED(hr) {
let mut shell_windows_ptr: *mut IUnknown = null_mut();
let shell_windows_iid: IID = IShellWindows::uuidof();
let shell_windows_clsid: CLSID = CLSID_ShellWindows;
// Create IShellWindows instance
let hr = CoCreateInstance(
&shell_windows_clsid,
null_mut(),
winapi::um::combaseapi::CLSCTX_ALL,
&shell_windows_iid,
&mut shell_windows_ptr as *mut _ as _,
);
if SUCCEEDED(hr) {
let shell_windows_dispatch: &IDispatch = &*(shell_windows_ptr as *mut IDispatch);
let hwnd = GetForegroundWindow() as LPCWSTR;
// Get Item of IShellWindows
let mut result = null_mut();
let mut params = winapi::um::oaidl::DISPPARAMS {
cArgs: 1,
cNamedArgs: 0,
rgvarg: &mut winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG {
n1: winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG_0 {
n2: winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG_0_0 {
vt: winapi::um::oaidl::VT_I4 as u16,
wReserved1: 0,
wReserved2: 0,
wReserved3: 0,
n3: winapi::um::oaidl::VARIANTARG_0_0_0 {
lVal: hwnd as _,
}
}
}
},
rgdispidNamedArgs: null_mut(),
};
shell_windows_dispatch.Invoke(
winapi::um::exdisp::DISPID_ISHELLWINDOWS_ITEM,
&winapi::shared::guiddef::IID_NULL,
winapi::um::winnls::LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT,
winapi::um::oaidl::DISPATCH_METHOD,
&mut params,
&mut result,
null_mut(),
null_mut(),
);
// Convert result to IWebBrowser2
let web_browser2: &IWebBrowser2 = &*(result.pdispVal as *mut IWebBrowser2);
// Get LocationURL property of IWebBrowser2
let mut location_url: BSTR = null_mut();
web_browser2.get_LocationURL(&mut location_url);
let path = bstr_to_string(location_url);
println!("Path: {}", path);
} else {
println!("Failed to create IShellWindows instance.");
}
} else {
println!("Failed to initialize COM.");
}
}
}
}* Formatting a huge confusing blob of python code, markdown, and json into something readable.
* Writing "boring" python functions needed to interface with AWS DynamoDB & S3.
* Going from 0 -> 1 on a side project creating printable QR codes that redirect to custom links with logging. (Literally gave me picture perfect step by step instructions here, as if it was reading off the AWS UI. The sole issue I had it helped me troubleshoot).
* JS tutoring.
* Integrating an unfamiliar authentication provider with a web app. It gave me boilerplate code that needed like 1-2 tweaks to work perfectly.
* Long winded architectural discussion giving me ideas on where to take internal libraries.
Other than that, I've actually found that the github copilot CLI is a fantastic tool I've been turning to more and more. There are so many CLI tools that I kinda sorta remember the flags for, and now I no longer have to munge about looking things up. Just earlier I needed some test api key and I just said "!! generate a random api key", and it immediately came back with "openssl rand -base64 32". That works, and saved me time googling it.
Also, your prompt here is pretty weak. For something complex you need to be very specific and give it explicit instructions on how to reason through the problem, explain it's thinking, etc. I find the more context I provide in the prompt, the better it performs. In particular leveraging the system prompt makes a big difference.
Copilot/GPT is excellent at writing lots of new lines of code. It's also really good at getting you started in code/frameworks that you don't really understand.
However, Copilot/GPT is not nearly as good at troubleshooting problems in existing code. If your job involves lots of bug fixing or tweaks to existing features, Copilot and GPT are next to useless.
I've noticed that if my work falls into the first category, Copilot often speeds me up something like 30% to 40%. If my work falls into the second category, it's 0%.
They will talk down to you about it until the wave rolls over them. It’s a tradition as old as mainframe engineers mocking PDP-11 hackers.
This one will be particularly rough for the late adopters, since one of the effects of ML code generation is compression of experience level.
This might be a bit contrarian, but I don't really think there's product market fit here, at least for engineers. And if given in the hands of non-engineers, you'll need to have an engineer at least look over the code anyway. I haven't seen or heard of anyone that seriously uses ChatGPT to generate code and uses it in prod (apart from engagement-farming Twitter posts).
> Understanding someone else’s code for large internal engineering teams is often a challenge
Without proper context, this will fail miserably. Have you ever seen a corporate codebase before? It can be the definition of "wtf?" even for a seasoned developer that's been working there for years.
This AI-generated code trend reminds me of the "no-code" fad of the past decade.