AI-Assisted Programming with Copilot

To present the skills that your students need in a manageable progression, this book is divided into two sections.

Section 1: Get started fast

Section 1 dives right in and gets your students started fast with a two-chapter course in using Copilot to develop software. These chapters show how to:

• Set up Copilot to work from within VS Code.
• Create a Python program with Copilot.
• Create a JavaScript web app with Copilot.
• Master the essential skills for working with Copilot’s Chat window.
• Use Copilot’s inline chat interface.
• Follow the best practices for prompt engineering.

Section 2: More skills as you need them

After your students finish section 1, they’ll be ready to jump to any of the chapters in section 2. As a result, you can assign whichever chapters are relevant to your course. These chapters show how to use Copilot to:

• Create a Python program that uses doctests to automate testing.
• Create a website that uses responsive web design.
• Generate SQL to work with an existing database or to create a new database.
• Ask for advice about software design and requirements gathering.
• Generate comments and documentation such as README.md files.
• Implement robust unit testing for Python code with pytest.
• Implement robust unit testing for JavaScript code with Jest.
• Implement test-driven design (TDD).

This book has been carefully designed to work as a supplement for any type of programming course. Here’s how our book can work for several common programming courses:

A Python course

After your course teaches basic Python coding skills, it can use section 1 of this book to show your students how to use Copilot to enhance those skills. Then, as you teach more Python skills, you can assign any of the chapters in section 2 that make sense for your course. For example, you can assign chapter 3 to present more Copilot skills for developing Python code. Or, you can assign chapter 7 to show how to use Copilot to implement robust unit testing with pytest.

A JavaScript course

After your course teaches the basic JavaScript skills, you can use section 1 of this book to show your students how to use Copilot to enhance those skills. Then, as you teach more JavaScript skills, you can assign any of the chapters in section 2 that make sense for your course. For example, you may want to assign chapter 7 to show how to use Copilot to implement robust unit testing with Jest.

An HTML/CSS course

Once your course teaches the basic HTML/CSS skills, you can use section 1 of this book to show your students how to use Copilot to generate code. Then, after you teach your students how responsive web design works, you can assign chapter 4 so your students can use Copilot to generate the HTML and CSS for a website that implements a responsive design.

A database course

Once your course teaches the basic skills for using SQL to work with a database, you can use section 1 of this book to show your students how to use Copilot to generate code. Then, you can assign chapter 5 to show how to use Copilot to generate SQL that works with an existing database or creates a new database.

All of the recommended software for this book is available for free, and chapter 1 provides complete, step-by-step instructions that your students can use to install it on their computers.

VS Code

To write code, your students need a code editor. This book shows how to use VS Code because it provides excellent tools for developing code in most languages including Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and SQL. In addition, it provides an integrated way to use Copilot to edit code.

Python

To test Python code that’s generated by Copilot, your students need to have Python installed on their system.

Chrome

To test HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that’s generated by Copilot, your students need to have a web browser. This book shows how to use Google Chrome, but your students can use another web browser if they prefer.

DB Browser for SQLite

To work with a database, your students need a database that implements the SQL standard. This book shows how to use DB Browser to work with SQLite, an embedded database that implements the SQL standard and doesn’t require installing a database server like MySQL, SQL Server, or Oracle. However, if you’re students already have access to a database server, they can use the skills described in this book to work with a database on that server.

This book doesn’t use Murach’s unique paired-pages format. Instead, it uses a reflowable format because we think it works better for eBooks, and more than half of our customers now use eBooks. This new format retains as many elements of our paired-pages format as possible, but we have modified them to make them work with the reflowable format. If you have a chance, let us know what you think of this format.

This book provides exercises at the end of each chapter, and we have not provided solutions to the exercises as part of the download for this book. As a result, you should be able to use the exercises at the end of each chapter as assignments. Due to the non-deterministic nature of AI, these solutions should be different for every student, but you should be able to evaluate each student’s solution on how well it completes the task assigned by the exercise.

Since this book is designed to be a supplementary text, we don’t currently plan to create the rest of our usual set of instructor’s materials for it (objectives, PowerPoint slides, and multiple-choice tests). But, if you’re planning on using this book as a supplement for your course, and some of these instructor’s materials would be helpful to you, please let us know which ones you’re interested in, and we’ll consider developing them.

“This is my first exposure to Murach’s books, and I love them. I like the organization of the content, the consistent approach in each book, and the accuracy of the material.”
— Bob L., Michigan

“I can’t praise this book highly enough. The clarity used in picking what to include, when to introduce it, and how to do so is remarkable.”
— Charles Ferguson, Software Developer, Australia

“Another thing I like is the exercises at the end of each chapter. They’re a great way to reinforce the main points of each chapter and force you to get your hands dirty.”
— Hien Luu, SD Forum/Java SIG

“Your book was indispensable to me. The answers were right there at every turn. All the examples made sense, and they all worked!”
— Alan Vogt, ETL Consultant, Massachusetts

“This book covers the perfect amount of description, and it does not make you bored by providing unnecessary details.”
— Posted at an online bookseller

On Murach’s Python Programming: “This is now my third book for Python, and it is the ONLY one that has made me feel comfortable solving problems and reading code.”
— Posted at an online bookseller

“Your books shine out from the rest—the quality of writing and presentation of information is topnotch, and the consistency of quality across books is impressive.”
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