Learning GitHub Copilot

Preface

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Edward Gibbon

I’ve been writing code for a very long time now—longer than I care to admit—and I’ve seen the winds and waves of change that have swept across the software development industry multiple times (and written about or trained on many of them). From the internet to CI/CD to containers to cloud, the paradigm shifts have upended the old ways of doing things, and spawned innovation, incredible tools, and turnarounds in our approaches to creating software. And, broadly, those shifts have also generated uncertainty and confusion as individuals tried to understand them and figure out how to adapt and apply their skills..

Now we have generative AI, arguably the biggest wave of change we have encountered in tech, especially for those developing software. Just like the others, it is inspiring massive innovation and driving massive changes. But in some respects, it resembles more of a tsunami where new tools, new models, and new capabilities exhibit tremendous power, all while coders are being swept along and trying to keep our collective heads above water.

This book is my attempt to help you surf the wave—at least as far as using the AI powerhouse that is GitHub Copilot. I won’t claim it will answer all your questions, but hopefully it will help you get to a very good comfort level with the tool, let you understand its capabilities (from basic to advanced topics), and inspire you to make your coding ...