Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2024 17:48:00 -0700
GitHub Copilot and similar AI code assistance tools are becoming
increasingly popular for good reasons. However, the way they require the
use of basic comments to generate code is problematic. This practice
overloads the traditional role of comments, which is undesirable.
Well-placed comments are invaluable for helping programmers understand
specific parts of code, but with AI overloading comments, it may become
difficult to distinguish between useful comments and simplistic ones
intended purely for AI.
Perhaps C++ should introduce a way to differentiate between comments meant
for AI code generation and those meant for programmers. For example:
//$$ A function y that accepts an int x
void y(int x);
^^This "comment" is trivial, but you may still want to keep it for future
refactoring purposes.
A good IDE could hide or collapse such "source text" used for AI-generated
code by default, making sure that when comments are visible, they are meant
to aid programmers rather than serve as prompts for AI. In this example,
"//$$" is used as a placeholder to mark such comments, though a more
suitable convention could be adopted.
d3fault
increasingly popular for good reasons. However, the way they require the
use of basic comments to generate code is problematic. This practice
overloads the traditional role of comments, which is undesirable.
Well-placed comments are invaluable for helping programmers understand
specific parts of code, but with AI overloading comments, it may become
difficult to distinguish between useful comments and simplistic ones
intended purely for AI.
Perhaps C++ should introduce a way to differentiate between comments meant
for AI code generation and those meant for programmers. For example:
//$$ A function y that accepts an int x
void y(int x);
^^This "comment" is trivial, but you may still want to keep it for future
refactoring purposes.
A good IDE could hide or collapse such "source text" used for AI-generated
code by default, making sure that when comments are visible, they are meant
to aid programmers rather than serve as prompts for AI. In this example,
"//$$" is used as a placeholder to mark such comments, though a more
suitable convention could be adopted.
d3fault
Received on 2024-10-10 00:48:13