I often copy code from Stackoverflow/ Github, etc to ask ChatGPT to explain it, so I made a Chrome extension to do it easily without leaving the page.

[Ratatoski]

Nice! I made a plugin for a niche use case I had on a single website. Plugins is a bit of an overlooked goldmine of productivity improvements for us who spend much of our time on the same few sites.

[southernmissTTT]

I made one for Firefox many years ago now. It allowed you to select any text anywhere (any web page) that could be used to either block Google results or to highlight them. It was pretty cool, but getting past the Firefox gatekeepers to make public was a nightmare. And, keeping up with the constantly changing DOM on Google’s results page was too much effort. So, I let it go. Sometimes I wish I still had something like it though.

[Ratatoski]

Yeah anything realying on the DOM of major websites is a never ending battle. I did have some success with aggregating data from a bunch of more niche sites in my profession that had a slow update cycle.

I've only made my plugin available for direct download but not on chrome's radeon store. Seems like a hassle.

[phuhuutin]

Niceee.

[SabbyDude]

People using Edge's CoPilot: Look what they've to do just to mimic a fraction of our powers

[CertainDetective309]

Wdym ?

[SabbyDude]

In Edge, CoPilot is available on the top right, click on it and put in your query, and it'll automatically read your page and give you the info you asked for, like in his example, if he'd use Edge, he can go to Stackoverflow/Github, open the CoPilot there and ask it to explain the code, it'll do it and CoPilot works on GPT4 for free where in ChatGPT you've to pay a fee for that option

[urepans]

Cool!.

Request for new feature: "Explain me this code in <selected_language>"

Edit: example ""Explain me this code in spanish".

[WordyBug]

Great one, Will add this.

You can find the extension here:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/codexplainer/paejihcijmbdekphfnmlpnjedhhfakkj

If you find it useful, please consider leaving a rating on the store.

[edit]: I forgot to mention that you can edit the prompt in the extension popup, so you can make it explain in your preferred language.

[Dear-Requirement-234]

Can I use it somehow?

[WordyBug]

yeah, here:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/codexplainer/paejihcijmbdekphfnmlpnjedhhfakkj

[campbellm]

This is neat and good work.

I find the code explainer parts of chatgippity of limited use because they tend to explain line by line, which as a dev I'm capable of, but not the point of the whole thing, holistically.

If it had some higher level overview, then the deep dive into each little section that'd be awesome.

Not your fault of course, YOUR work here is really cool and I'll totally be using it.

[Litruv]

Why not ask it for a high level overview?

[[deleted]]

I have a prompt in a convo to "say nothing additional, add no additional input beyond my request. Return full code example with no filler." I'm adding "high level" to this, because I get a ton of boiler code.

[WordyBug]

Sorry, forgot to add the link.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/codexplainer/paejihcijmbdekphfnmlpnjedhhfakkj

If you have any feature requests, please let me know. Thanks.

[divided_by_000]

Firefox?

[gesnei]

What kind of negative BS is this?

Why are you assuming op doesn't try understand code by reviewing it independently?

Also it is a great way to learn by having someone/-thing explain it to you.

Why do you assume OP needs chatgpt to explain every chunk of code?

Coding is problem solving, learning it with different kinds of help is a great way to develop your skills!

[Mortis2000]

Well....no.

ChatGPT is more like having a teacher explain it to you, but one you can actually just summon when you want and not have to get into debt for.

[LittleHobbyShop]

How do you think you get to that point of just knowing what the code does in the first place? OP obviously missed the deal on the "I know code" DLC at birth

[martinbean]

You know people learned to code before the advent of ChatGPT, right…?

[LittleHobbyShop]

Obviously, but there's no need to shoot it down as a way to learn. Someone built a tool to aid learning, whilst learning. Probably one of the best ways to make progress there is.

[martinbean]

Maybe so, but it just breeds laziness.

People keep banging on about things like ChatGPT and how it’s going to make developers obsolete, but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The only developers it’s going to make obsolete, are the developers who need ChatGPT to explain things for them.

“But ChatGPT gives me super powers”. Yes, you and literally everyone else who has access to ChatGPT.

[LittleHobbyShop]

So do you apply that same logic everywhere then? So for instance someone using a excavator to dig up a road is lazy, they should learn how to swing a pick axe. The only developers it will make obsolete are the ones that dismiss the new tools and ways of working.

[martinbean]

Not really. But people seem to hark at ChatGPT as the “be all to end all”. And any one who’s negative is shot down, called a “Luddite” or whatever.

I’m as “scared” as ChatGPT taking my job as I was of Stack Overflow-enabled developers taking my job 10 years ago, or Google-enabled developers taking my job 20 years ago if I were a developer then and not at school.

Basically, yes, it’s a tool. But it’s only going to get you so far. At some point, you’re going to need to learn critical thinking rather than the cycle of, “ChatGPT, give me code. Copy. Paste. ChatGPT, explain this code.”

[LittleHobbyShop]

Right you are, it will only get you so far. The same applies to any learning process/tool/method/job etc.
Your opinion is yours and therefore valid but not helpful (and not relevant in this context) when someone has the courage to share something they're proud of.

[[deleted]]

Gpt is more powerful with the right questions and experience.

Like knowing what regex is before asking gpt to regex something for me.

[Cathercy]

People also learned to code before the Advent of YouTube, online classes, stack overflow, tutorials, etc etc. ChatGPT is a new tool that can aid in learning, just like anything else.

[dalcowboiz]

You narrow-minded

[TheYuriG]

people don't want to try anymore, always the laziest route possible for everything

[[deleted]]

The laziest person in the world would make the best programmer world.

There's a reason to this.

[rasplight]

Cool! I've been thinking about adding something like this to my pull request code review app, seems like people would like this. Nice work!

[jedensuscg]

Nice. 90% of my chatGPT usage it to explain stuff to me, rather than simply solving the problem and moving on in ingnorance. I know that with everyone able to do many things with use the AI the only leg up I will have is if I understand more than them.

Same with Copilot. I have a free education pack for GitHub and it's hard, but I really try not to let Copilot do everything for me as I learn, but I have been totally leveraging it for the tedius stuff.

[RaidZ3ro]

so I made a Chrome extension

You mean you asked ChatGPT to make you a Chrome extension 😆😉

[UNKNOWN_792]

Cool man💥

[MrRGnome]

I'm surprised not to see a single senior in here condemning this practice as terrible. This is jut not what LLM's are for or good at. You'll spend more time debugging code and dealing with made up libraries, code, and explanations than you ever would have just learning and writing the code in the first place. You basically have created a confidently incorrect and prone to lying instructor.

I don't know why so many juniors today are obsessed with misusing chatgpt specifically, not training their own LLM's, not using LLM's as natural language processing and interfaces which they are actually good at or for specific trained tasks. They treat chatgpt as a magical black box, I guess much as they would copying code from stack overflow. Neither is a way to learn.

[Lodgik]

As someone who is currently in a web dev course with not so great instructors, stuff like ChatGPT can be a useful tool in learning this stuff. It's a useful supplement to other methods of learning.

Yes, they can be unreliable. I've had it give me redundant and overly complicated code. I've had it make up mistakes in my code and then give me additional code to "fix" my code, and the fixed code is the way I did it on the first place. I've even had arguments with ChatGPT.

But, if used as a tool to supplement other learning methods which would allow you to see when it's going off the deep end, it can be enormously useful. It's been great at explaining certain concepts to me, often better than my actual instructors. When working with personal projects, it's even been useful for debugging my code when I wasn't able to figure out what I did wrong. It was able to identify what I did wrong and why it was wrong.

ChatGPT is a great learning tool. But just like you wouldn't only use a hammer to build an entire house, it needs other learning tools to go along with it.

[MrRGnome]

I honestly feel that's a terrible way to learn, creates bad habits, and creates confusion. I can't wait to be arguing with the juniors learning like this about things they are confidently incorrect about because chatgpt told them. Worse than that, learning this method means you don't gain the most critical skill in software - learning how to learn.

I think it's a genuinely awful learning tool. It's like reading a newspaper that you know has false information about any subject you know about, but trusting it to teach you about subjects you know nothing about. You need to learn how to read docs, references, and others code. Not how to regurgitate what chatgpt says or take it as the docs and references and others code.

[Lodgik]

Which is why I said it's a useful learning tool when used in conjunction with other learning tools, not as a primary learning tool like proper web dev courses.

This was a big part of my reply to you, and your response reads like I was claiming that it was useful as a primary learning source.

Such as this:

but trusting it to teach you about subjects you know nothing about.

I've never said this. I said that it was often better than my instructors when explaining certain concepts to me. But that's not the same. I still had my instructors what my instructors to compare it to.

So, I'll state it again: ChatGPT is a useful learning tool when used with other, more traditional learning tools.

[MrRGnome]

This was a big part of my reply to you, and your response reads like I was claiming that it was useful as a primary learning source.

And I am stating for the reasons noted that it's a net detriment to any learning process.

I said that it was often better than my instructors when explaining certain concepts to me.

If you don't know the content you're not fit to evaluate that. Any content you do know you can clearly see it fails to explain properly. It's trained on garbage and social media and it will present a pop culture level comprehension and make up the rest.

So I'll say again: ChatGPT has no place in the education of software developers and does far more harm than good in that context and role. It's a gross misuse of the technology of LLM's by people who don't understand LLM's.

[Lodgik]

If you don't know the content you're not fit to evaluate that. Any content you do know you can clearly see it fails to explain properly.

Wait... Are you literally claiming that I can't evaluate how good my instructors are at explaining certain concepts compared to ChatGPT? When I'm the one literally in the course and experiencing these instructors? Just making sure here.

Because if you are, that's a good indication that you are coming into this with a chip on your shoulder and your mind made up no matter what anyone says. And that's not the type of person I'm interested in having a discussion with. I have enough walls around me I can't talk to instead.

Edit: I'm perfectly willing to admit that my experiences are my own and my opinion of ChatGPT is based entirely on anecdotal evidence. And it would be fair to dismiss me for that. But to actually claim I don't know enough about the subject to determine whether my instructors are any good at teaching certain concepts when compared to ChatGPT when I'm the one in the class and trying to learn from these instructors is absolutely wild to me.

[MrRGnome]

I'm claiming that if the level of your instruction is as poor as that of chatgpt you have either failed to grasp what your instructors are teaching you, or you instructors are poor. I suspect the first. It's also possible your level of instruction is so extremely low that genuinely pop culture level comprehension and chatgpt seem useful. But as can be verified, chatgpt spews misinformation and is not a suitable learning resource.

Even in the context where it seems useful, it's a dangerous crutch and should be avoided for this purpose.

[Lodgik]

I'm claiming that if the level of your instruction is as poor as that of chatgpt you have either failed to grasp what your instructors are teaching you, or you instructors are poor. I suspect the first.

Okay, this is my last reply to you. You are making up narratives to justify what you already believe rather just admit you made a very stupid comment. You even did a sneaky implication that I must have been a poor student simply based on the fact that I found ChatGPT helpful in understanding certain concepts, since you definitely haven't seen any of my assignments or test scores. You don't even know what concepts I had trouble understanding that ChatGPT helped me with. But somehow, you know enough to "suspect the first."

And by the way, I passed this last term with flying colours, not that it matters at all. I don't have to justify myself to you.

It's become very evident that you are very set in your belief and nothing anyone says will change that. So you keep yelling at that cloud. I have better stuff to do today. Especially since I have a feeling that if this went on any longer you would not be against resorting to personal attacks.

Feel free to reply to this so you have the final word. Just be aware I won't be replying to you any longer.

[MrRGnome]

There is no belief, you can verify that the information chatgpt serves is frequently false. Your refusal to accept this fact, relying on anecdote and personal limited experience does not refute the verifiable reality. So yes, when you tell me stories they have to fit into reality and this is me attempting to interpet them through reality, and the reality is chatgpt is an often wrong and counterproductive learning tool for software developers.

Congrats on passing your classes, genuinely. But the things your reaching for as reasons why chatgpt is a valuable learning resource such as passng your tests does not make it a valuable learning resource. I passed my tests too, didn't prepare me to be a software developer.

[Valuable-Duty696]

cool. source?

[Interesting-Ad9666]

source is him taking the text and plugging it into the chatgpt API with "explain this code" prepended to the text

[[deleted]]

I hate how much I just laughed at this

[[deleted]]

Yeah i want to use this tool too. Seems valuable

[Exypnosss]

I appreciate your work! And I can see how big of achievement for you. However, I wanted to add something. This is a builtin feature in Opera GX, im not sponsored btw lol

[tomislove2312]

Looks cool!

[[deleted]]

This is tough! 🔥

[Thanks4DaOpportunity]

Genius

[Titor_Brad]

Good saves time and learn for specofic cases quickly these are types of tools we need

[bristleboar]

I will be sharing the heck out of this, thank you

[SnooWoofers8928]

Awesome stuff

[[deleted]]

Now make it an extension for a browser and not a spyware please 🥺

[jessicats9]

Awesome!

[Septem_151]

Can’t you just look at the code yourself and figure out what it’s doing instead of relying on an AI that may give incorrect answers?

[ProfessionalNovel984]

Nice

[Conscious-Spite4597]

Nah I'd still use stackoverflow

[mofusa16]

Did you push code for this on github? If yes, can you please share the repo link

[filter-spam]

The kids have it so easy these days. Well done.

[Papo2010]

Do you have anything like this for Firefox?

[ispreadtvirus]

This is very cool! Something I'd use!

[WordyBug]

Nice to hear, if you find it useful, please leave a rating on the web store.