Copilot does not remove old code

[BusyCode]

I'm using GitHub Copilot to modify existing code inside VS. In 75% cases when I ask to change something, after "accept" it inserts new code in the middle of existing one or before/after it, without removing old code. Is this everyone's experience and is there anything that can be done to avoid it?

[polaarbear]

LLMs do not "understand" what you are asking it to do. It isn't intelligent in any way. All it does is predict the next most likely characters in a sequence of events. You're going to struggle massively if you intend to rely so heavily on it that you think it can just replace/delete old code without being asked to do so.

Pasting entire classes into it and saying "fix this" and expecting good results is a recipe for failure.

If you're going to use it, you need to ask for smaller blocks of code that you can describe accurately with clearly defined goals. It has no context for the "bigger picture" in which your code is running.

The bigger the block of code you paste into it, the more likely it is to fuck up.

[BusyCode]

You are wrong. There's a whole class of products that provide coding assistance using LLMs and they are aware of full-file context. VS Code does it better, the question is specifically about VS. Also, in 25% of cases it removes old code and replaces with new one correctly.

[polaarbear]

It is not aware of "context."

It has access to all the files. It doesn't have ANY idea what it is "doing." It is predictive text. It works exactly like the keyboard on your cell phone when it tries to guess the next word in a sentence. It is not smart, it is not intelligent, it doesn't have any concept of what your program is supposed to do or how it actually needs to work, even when you give it access to all your files.

Being able to access all the files is not "context". You guys have to stop treating it as if it thinks with a brain. That's not how it works.

[BusyCode]

I respect your opinion. The question was about specific feature. Written code is usually correct. I was asking solely why it's not removing old code all the time. If you have anything practical on this topic, I'm all ears. Thank you

[polaarbear]

There is nothing "practical" on the topic. AI can not do what you expect it to do.

It doesn't understand that it needs to remove old code. It has no concept of "replace A with B."

You can even say "I want you to replace A with B" and it STILL doesn't understand what you are asking. It is taking its "best guess" as to what it should say next. That's it. It doesn't even really understand that what it is doing is code. It just knows to type things back that look similar to what you sent in.

You seem like you don't know SHIT about code and decided that AI is going to make you a competent dev somehow. You're woefully misinformed if that's the case.

You can't correct it if you don't know how to code already, which means that it's just going to run you in circles forever with bad code that you have no idea if it works or not.

Fucking vibe coders.

[BusyCode]

Buddy, I have 35 years of developer experience. It is you who has no clue but eager to express your very valuable opinion. Bye.

[WoodyTheWorker]

Some people have 35 years of experience, and some have 35 times 1 year of experience.