Generating Comments

GitHub Copilot is an engine for generating code, but it can also generate comments from code. For example, suppose you have the following code for the Sieve of Eratosthenes without comments:

def eratosthenes_sieve(n):
    primes = []
    sieve = [True] * (n + 1)
    for p in range(2, n + 1):
        if sieve[p]:
            primes.append(p)
            for i in range(p * p, n + 1, p):
                sieve[i] = False
    return primes

GitHub Copilot can write explanatory comments for the method, like this:

# Write the description of the method here <- [Actual Prompt]
# Input: n - the number of primes to return
# Output: a list of the first n primes
# Example: eratosthenes_sieve(5) -> [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]
# Note: this is a very inefficient way to find primes, but it is easy to understand
def eratosthenes_sieve(n):
    primes = []
    sieve = [True] * (n + 1)
    for p in range(2, n + 1):
        if sieve[p]:
            primes.append(p)
            for i in range(p * p, n + 1, p):
                sieve[i] = False
    return primes

Additionally, it can write code explanations from the code itself, helping engineers quickly understand other people's code:

def eratosthenes_sieve(n):
    primes = []
    sieve = [True] * (n + 1)
    # Description of the algorithm <- [Actual Prompt]
    # 1. Create a list of consecutive integers from 2 to n: (2, 3, 4, ..., n).
    # 2. Initially, let p equal 2, the first prime number.
    # 3. Starting from p, enumerate its multiples by counting to n in increments of p, and mark them in the list
    #    (these will be 2p, 3p, 4p, ...; the p itself should not be marked).
    # 4. Find the first number greater than p in the list that is not marked. If there was no such number, stop.
    #    Otherwise, let p now equal this new number (which is the next prime), and repeat from step 3.
    for p in range(2, n + 1):
        if sieve[p]:
            primes.append(p)
            for i in range(p * p, n + 1, p):
                sieve[i] = False
    return primes

Displaying Steps

Using the LIST STEPS feature in Code Brushes on GitHub Next, you can achieve similar results.

def calculate_sum(numbers):
    # initialize a variable to track the total
    total = 0
    # iterate over each number in the list
    for number in numbers:
        # add the number to the total
        total += number
    # return the total
    return total

Code to Document

For large-scale code, one approach is to use tools like ChatGPT or Bing to obtain explanatory output. When you want an overview of the entire code, using chat-style AI tools can be helpful.