The Loop

GitHub has announced the general availability of Copilot Chat, a significant addition to its ever-popular AI assistant. This new feature is available for both VS Code and Visual Studio, and is included in all GitHub Copilot plans. Here are some reasons to start looking into Copilot Chat today:

• Copilot Chat has a deeper integration with the coding environment, understanding code context better than a general-purpose AI like ChatGPT
• Chat can assist more effectively than other AI’s with tasks like writing unit tests, translating between programming languages, and detecting security vulnerabilities
• Its integration into the GitHub platform allows for a more seamless and efficient coding experience

​HTMX is a small JavaScript library that allows you to achieve modern interactive web apps through markdown alone. Here are some reasons why HTMX is one of the most popular repos on GitHub:

• You can include HTMX in your project in 3 ways:
  • Load HTMX to your website/application by including the CDN at the head of your HTML file
  • Download HTMX from unpkg.com, place it in your project’s directory, and include it with a script tag:<script src="/path/to/htmx.min.js"></script>
  • Install HTMX through NPM:
    ​npm install htmx.org
• HTMX provides access to AJAX, CSS Transitions, WebSockets, and Server Sent Events directly in HTML using attributes
• HTMX allows for AJAX requests to be performed directly from HTML elements:
  • <div hx-post="http://localhost:3000/submit" hx-trigger="mouseenter"> Submit </div>
  • This feature simplifies the process of updating page content dynamically without the need to reload the entire page
• If speed and simplicity are your top priorities, HTMX is well worth looking into

MySQL has announced that developers can now write JavaScript stored programs (functions and procedures) in the MySQL database server, a big development that promises to expand MySQL’s usability and developer pool.

• JavaScript stored programs empower developers to sidestep data movement and seamlessly implement advanced data processing logic inside the database with ease
• Some use cases for the JavaScript stored programs include:
  • Data extraction: extract information from commonly used complex objects in databases
    • For example: URL strings
  • Data formatting: generate formatted strings using widely used templatization schemes such as JavaScript Mustache package
  • Approximate search: use similarity scoring functions in SELECT queries
    • For example: retrieving similar strings from a table
  • Data Validation: clean data using complex validation rules
    • For example: using JavaScript Validator package
  • Compression / Encoding: Use custom algorithms (not included in MySQL), for data compression and encryption
  • Data Transformation: Change data representation such as converting a column of strings into sparse-matrix representation used in feature engineering

With monorepo architecture growing in popularity, Vercel has added new features to its Developer Experience Platform to better support monorepo users.

• Conformance is Vercel’s rules engine that checks for code adherence to standards and alerts developers to critical bugs and performance issues (this is available on their Enterprise level of developer experience platform)
• Code Owners allows teams to assign responsibility for the code and notifies relevant individuals, including security team members, of any changes for review
• Developer Experience now has a new dashboard that displays code health insights and is better for onboarding new team members

Vercel has released v0, an AI-powered component generator. Here’s how it works:

• A user gives v0 a prompt about what they are trying to build, and v0 will respond with a rough version that can be refined through further iteration
• v0 produces code using open-source tools like React, Tailwind CSS, and Shadcn UI​
• When you're ready, copy and paste that code into your app and develop from there

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The Loop is written and edited by Hank Mason, John Kaufmann, Noah Gribbin, Victoria Lebel, Chris Breen, and Marie Stotz.