Re: Is GitHub Copilot violates free software licenses?

[J Leslie Turriff]

On 2021-07-07 14:04:02 Jean Louis wrote:
> * alimiracle <alimiracle@riseup.net> [2021-07-07 21:35]:
> > its doesn't give you the same code.
>
> That for sure.
>
> > its rearrangement codes and integrate them, and then gives you the
> > result
>
> Yes, and that may be useful.
>
> > This thing make a lot of problems.
>
> Main problem is abuse of free software licenses.
>
> > - Makes programmers not creative
>
> I would not tell that too early. You know the libraries that exist in
> every programming language? They are often used and re-used, for
> example Python libraries, Node.js libraries, Haskell libraries, Go
> libraries, there are so many. One could say that libraries make
> programmers not creative as they are ready available.
>
> In fact, I like programming without using external libraries. But
> often it is useless to like it that way, libraries are available and
> trying to re-write something is reinventing the wheel, so I end up
> using external libraries.
>
> Libraries are often so much bigger than programming snippets that the
> free software license abusive AI tool we speak about will provide.
>
> Do libraries make programmers not creative? I don't think it is so
> generally. But in relation to the library they definitely make
> programmer not think about whatever library is providing. In that
> context programmer will stop creating because library is already
> there.
>
> With AI snippets is about similar.
>
> > Produces a generation of lazy programmers
> > - Produces a generation of lazy programmers
> > - Since the app collects codes and rearrange it ..........
>
> This may be said also for libraries. It is not useful to go analysing
> it like that. One could say that because GUI exists for specific
> programing language, that such GUI makes programmers lazy.
>
> But programmers are lazy!
>
> https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q=programmers+are+lazu
>
> https://www.sarcasm.com/programmers-are-lazy/
>
> http://threevirtues.com/
>
> According to Larry Wall(1), the original author of the Perl programming
> language, there are three great virtues of a programmer; Laziness,
> Impatience and Hubris
>
>     Laziness: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce
>     overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving
>     programs that other people will find useful and document what you
>     wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it.
>
>     Impatience: The anger you feel when the computer is being
>     lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your
>     needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to.
>
>     Hubris: The quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs
>     that other people won't want to say bad things about.
>
> > It means the app repeating other people's code mistakes.
>
> It can be, it is up to programmer to make it right.

        In the commercial programming environment, what you're calling laziness 
is a necessity of
the drive by management to produce product as quickly as possible.  (I spent 
thirty years
in that environment.)  Stealing code from one program for another, or gutting a 
program
to create a different one is the normal way of life in that environment.  Of 
course,
those programs were all property of the company, so there was no issue of IP 
theft.
        The real drawback of using libraries is that one doesn't have time to 
look at how the
services that a library provides work, how reliable and safe the library code 
is.
        In contrast, the snippets that this other service provides are likely 
small enough for
the programmer to be able to analyze, and as a side-effect they further the 
programmer's
knowledge of programming.

Leslie
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