Rubberducking with ChatGPT

Today I solved a number of Javascript issues I face using ChatGPT. I must say I’m impressed. Previously I asked code questions for Vue.js, but perhaps the training data is limited or the way I asked, it kept giving me answers that were clearly wrong. This time it somehow shined through.

My lessons on how best to collaborate with ChatGPT on coding questions:

• Provide context, show parts of datasets, define variables and constants if needed, share what errors you faced.
• The more code and datasets you show the more relevant the answer.
• Ask in stages, not all in one go. Break it down so that it can also build up context.
• Tell ChatGPT it was wrong, what were the errors that came from the code it provided.
• Iterate on your questions, rephrase in a different way.

Given enough context, ChatGPT can provide code that customised to your code. That’s a clear step up from asking questions on Stack Overflow, because I often have to adapt and re-jig the answers I find there. With ChatGPT, I get the right code, and it can also explain it line by line what the code does.

I’ve seen folks use ChatGPT for writing template code and all. But I was never impressed with that (you can download or copy paste template code easily). But this is different. I can imagine, especially for beginners, ChatGPT or equivalent, paired with good old Google search, might be really useful as a coding assistant and coach.

One of the use cases for AI that I’m enthusiastic about.