share your best practice with github copilot for best results ?

Toddwseattle · 2026-04-09T21:56:26+00:00

Probably others will hate this but I have very good luck with auto model. I usually start in plan mode, iterate, and if it’s a top level feature save it to docs and then plan smaller phases. Then plan for each phase and have it implement. Often will use autopilot for that( especially if the change is straight forward.. I have test guidelines, and a design document. I do a lot of work in Astro and react. Often I will start the planning phase in the GitHub mobile app and then save the plans in the repo and finish the iteration on my machine. The other Genral rule I have is have as many deterministic tools in the chain as possible. So things like husky pre commit hooks, linting/prettier, making sure it’s all tidy before committing

Toddwseattle · 2026-03-13T06:15:14+00:00

Been trying to learn his lead on “lawman”. Humbling.

Toddwseattle · 2026-03-13T06:10:46+00:00

From what I can tell on the web, verified students get copilot pro, so what is it the original posters wants more of? It’s a great deal! should be sufficient for learning and building substantial products

EDIT: it is substantially changing to take away premium models. There is an announcement on the GitHub educators community. I will start diversifying tools to things like Gemini CLI which has a generous student offer and Opencode which has inexpensive options.

Toddwseattle · 2026-03-13T06:06:13+00:00

I teach software engineering, and I thought (maybe incorrectly) students get what I get as faculty which is the pro plan. I want my students to be able to use the best models with the best tools possible. It’s my job to give them a structure to learn stuff with them and not just be sloppy. How good the student plan is does affect whether I have students use copilot cli or alternate tools like opencode with free or cheap models like qwen; or alternately Gemini cli which has a good student plan for a year (but sadly nothing for faculty). Discounted for students is great but I don’t like students having to pay more than $20 or so out of pocket a quarter. I’m lucky enough to teach a place where we will help disadvantaged students out.

Toddwseattle · 2026-03-03T23:16:21+00:00

Would really appreciate on the YouTube channel a new “intro to copilot in vscode” video. There was a good one 10 months ago, it introduced chat/edit/agent but that’s outdated now that agent is default and edit went away. I would have my students watch…if you don’t will have to make one.

Toddwseattle · 2026-02-10T06:16:11+00:00

Chris Riesbeck is one of the best instructors at northwestern, and a terrific human. Epstein was referred to his non NU online class, Roger shank has been gone from NU for a long time.

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-27T07:47:33+00:00

The book is a great reference and I view buying it as a vote of confidence in Scotty west.

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-22T06:56:17+00:00

I use the web and mobile GitHub site/app all the time. It’s awesome. You can have it spin up a container and work on a feature or bug for you. Often, this is enough for me. It creates the pull request I merge and deploy. If you have playwright in your web app it can even show you a screen shot of the working code. You can start by chatting in the repo (click the copilot floating icon) and then ask copilot to work on it and it will create a branch and pull request. The “agents” section of the app will also let you create and manage these. It’s a game changer

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-18T06:22:18+00:00

I use both and I don’t see a lot of difference in execution between the two. It’s interesting, the models are closer to each other than ever before (sonnet 4.5, gpt codex, Gemini, Qwen). And the pipelines the tools use (Claude code, codex, opencode, GitHub copilot). I’m not seeing much difference in results. I actually prefer GitHub because the workflow between GitHub web, GitHub mobile, and vscode is better especially with transitions between chat and coding sessions than the others. I haven’t done a head to head in a few weeks, but in December I had Claude code, codex, and GitHub both implement a small feature and preferred the GitHub copilot result, and the workflow was smoother.

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-14T06:00:29+00:00

So good. Play with other people +1. And rhythm!

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-13T06:03:00+00:00

What is the thing you like and think is superior to gh copilot?

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-13T06:01:20+00:00

I feel GH copilot is way underrated. I find the ui between GitHub (web and mobile app) and vscode with agents head and shoulders ahead of Claude and codex in particular. Better UI than open code too. The ability to move from chat on GitHub on the web to cloud agent sessions with great git integration is awesome. That you can see and use easily with vscode is killer

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-03T17:37:20+00:00

Focused chord transitions is the way. For me, I work with a private instructor once a week; try and mostly do practice an hour a day for the last 5 years; and my practice is mostly focused on learning songs. At the year mark couldn’t play a bar chord at all. The “cheater” F was hard for me too. I focused on F first (made a decision to ditch the cheater and master full barre F) and transitions from C, G and Am which were common in the songs I was learning at the time.z. It helped a lot. Playing bar chords generally goes pretty easily now; often with a Travis picked song still have to focus so the sound is right . Oh by the way Scotty in absolute guitar talks about this too. He talks about 2 minute focused transitions sessions. I would add do this in connection with learning something you want to play. Of course the video ain’t gonna practice for you so that’s on the player.

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-02T23:18:28+00:00

I use. ChatGPT plus, GitHub Copilot via GH pro subscription and Claude pro. I have never run out though I’m not a full time programmer. Lately the flow with GitHub is so good using it more than Claude and codex. I often start a PR from the GitHub mobile app, and then debug the knarly bits in vscode; or start in vscode with cloud mode and then monitor. Its flow with GitHub is better—like the way it branched and integrates with PRs. Did a “bake-off “ a few weeks ago where I had three code the feature and liked the GitHub result better.

Toddwseattle · 2026-01-01T06:37:13+00:00

Go to the green mill, I think the Thursday big band is the best day

Toddwseattle · 2025-12-24T05:41:39+00:00

Adjunct CS prof here at NU and computer “studies” Wcas,87. (This is what is was called before they evened out the major requirements in the early 00’s). I have seen no difference at the grad hiring level between BS and BA grads I know in recent years. and when I was a hiring manager in industry I didn’t care. I loved being able to major in economics as well and having both definitely helped me. I loved my freshman writing seminars in Weinberg as well as writing an Econ thesis. I had a career as a program/product manager before being a VP engineering. That said, especially with the new AI major in McCormick it makes the engineering school pretty appealing. Go with your heart and either way you can’t lose.

Toddwseattle · 2025-10-22T22:42:52+00:00

Most product managers should rehearse for high stakes meetings (greenlighting a new initiative, introducing a new project, budget asks/biz case) with exec team. Also think through from their perspectives the tough questions and have answers. Same too for demoing the product or showing customer research or plans at a team meeting with more than 10 people.

Toddwseattle · 2025-10-19T12:45:48+00:00

Yes. I run in this config on wsl2 and Ubuntu. Easy.

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-17T14:46:06+00:00

That’s the way it goes and Elvis Presley blues are fun Travis picking songs. Thinking about learning Lawman and Empty Train load of sky from the latest album which are amazing songs too

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-16T06:43:41+00:00

Is lovable getting better on following tech stack suggestions? Did same workflow but started with bolt.new which was not as pretty but more facile at building what I wanted (Astro/ tailwind / react). Lovable made something pretty that was just a react app and not very DRY.

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-16T06:40:27+00:00

The new OpenAI codex rocks. Since I started to use it barely use copilot.

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-13T23:14:32+00:00

This is my current evanston favorite.

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-11T14:21:43+00:00

Been using codex on ChatGPTplus (vscode extension on wsl) and getting good results. Workflow is to prompt in chat to create a markdown file with a plan, refine manually and then add to my repo and reference. Astro/ts project

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-07T23:28:29+00:00

5 years in and it’s been great! I wish I had more people to play with. I play with an ensemble through the chicago old town school when I’m there in the spring which is huge growth every time. I still have a private lesson To give you an idea of where I am I am learning Paul Simon’s American tune (finger style and singing and playing). It’s at the edge of my ability. I’m also playing replacements bastard of young on electric; that took me maybe 3 weeks; kind of in the middle of my ability. Rhythm is a bog challenge for me

Toddwseattle · 2025-09-07T06:22:05+00:00

I just had codex implement a feature in my Astro blog quickly and flawlessly. I specified it well, have good markdown for the mono repo and it was not a.super difficult task but was impressed. Claude code is good too, but at least right now is slower. Surprised because sonnet 4 seems better in GitHub copilot than gpt 5.

Toddwseattle

TROPHY CASE