Maxim Salnikov: Leveraging GitHub Copilot Chat syntax

 GitHub Copilot Chat is an incredibly powerful and useful feature that allows you to chat with or about your code. Even though it’s 100% natural language-friendly (i.e., you can send your messages without using any specific syntax), leveraging some special chat capabilities can unlock new AI-assisted development scenarios and significantly boost your productivity. 

These powerful features, which you can use by applying special syntax, include chat participants, slash commands, and context variables. Note that the described features are available in VS Code and might not be fully supported in other IDEs where GitHub Copilot Chat is available. 

Target your question or request by messaging one of the available chat participants 

In GitHub Copilot Chat, you can reference one of the AI-powered “domain experts” using conventional chat syntax—by prepending @ to the participant name. The currently available chat participants are: 

• @workspace: Knows everything about the code in your currently open workspace. This is the chat participant you will most likely communicate with frequently. 
• @terminal: Knows all about the integrated terminal shell, its contents, and its buffer. 
• @vscode: Knows about the VS Code editor, its commands, and features. 

Example: Let’s get information about the backend part of the project we’ve just been assigned to by asking the @workspace chat participant right after we open the project folder in VS Code.

Inspired by the Daily Dev Blog Post by Maxim Salnikov. Refer the below links

https://app.daily.dev/posts/maxim-salnikov-on-linkedin-leveraging-github-copilot-chat-syntax-frspfrjml?userid=XDCZD-PHG&cid=share_post

Chrome DevTools: Understand errors and warnings better with Gemini

 To use this feature, make sure that you:

• Are located in one of the supported regions and are at least 18 years old.
• Using Chrome version 125 or later.
• Are signed into Chrome with your Google Account.

• Have English (US) selected in settings Settings > Preferences > Appearance > Language in DevTools.

Turn on 'Understand console messages with AI' in DevTools

Open DevTools and navigate to settings Settings. Under Preferences > Console, turn on check_box Understand console messages with AI.

Setting location...

If you can't turn on the checkbox, a info information icon indicates that one or more of the requirements haven't been met. Hover over the icon to learn more.

Get explanations for console messages

In Chrome, do the following:

1. Visit this demo page.
2. Open DevTools and inspect the page.
3. Open the Console to inspect console messages.

4. On the demo page, click inside the search box. The drop-down menu fails to fetch and the Console shows an error.

   

5. Hover over the CORS error message. An  Understand this error button appears to the right of the error message.

   

6. To bring up a dialog, click  Understand this error.

   If you're using this feature for the first time ...

   1. Read the privacy notice to learn how Google uses your data and click Next. 

      Here, you can also Cancel the dialog or Disable this feature in settings.

   2. In the next dialog window, read the legal notice to learn the things you should know. To accept the relevant Terms of Service, enable the check_box checkbox and click Continue. 

      Here, you can also go Back or Disable this feature in settings.

7. In the dialog window, learn what data will be sent to Google. To view the data in new tabs, you can click the corresponding links.

   To get an explanation, click Continue.

   

   Tip: To let the Console pick up all the relevant information from the network log, reload the page and recapture the log.

8. After a few seconds, an explanation will appear below the console error.

   

If you don't think the explanation is satisfactory, you can click Use search instead to open a new tab with search results for the error.

We would greatly appreciate your feedback. Click thumb_up thumbs up or thumb_down thumbs down buttons to help us continuously improve this feature.

Inspired by the Google Chrome Devtools Blog Post https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/console/understand-messages

RAG – Opportunity and Potential Applications for Business

 

What is RAG?

RAG is an AI framework for retrieving facts from an external knowledge base to ground large language models (LLMs) on the most accurate, up-to-date information and to give users insight into LLMs' generative process.

The retrieval augmented generation (RAG) architecture enhances the accuracy and performance of large language models (LLMs) by supplying the most relevant and contextually significant proprietary, private, or dynamic data during task execution. It merges the creative capabilities of LLMs with the information-gathering skills of the retrieval systems. In simpler terms, RAG actively searches for suitable information from external databases, articles, and various sources in response to your current text, such as a prompt or question. This acquired information is seamlessly incorporated into the output of the LLM, resulting in a more comprehensive and insightful outcome.

Large language models can be inconsistent. Sometimes they nail the answer to questions, other times they regurgitate random facts from their training data. If they occasionally sound like they have no idea what they’re saying, it’s because they don’t. LLMs know how words relate statistically, but not what they mean.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is an AI framework for improving the quality of LLM-generated responses by grounding the model on external sources of knowledge to supplement the LLM’s internal representation of information.

Implementing RAG in an LLM-based question answering system has two main benefits: It ensures that the model has access to the most current, reliable facts, and that users have access to the model’s sources, ensuring that its claims can be checked for accuracy and ultimately trusted.

“You want to cross-reference a model’s answers with the original content so you can see what it is basing its answer on,” said Luis Lastras, director of language technologies at IBM Research.

RAG has additional benefits. By grounding an LLM on a set of external, verifiable facts, the model has fewer opportunities to pull information baked into its parameters. This reduces the chances that an LLM will leak sensitive data, or ‘hallucinate’ incorrect or misleading information.

RAG also reduces the need for users to continuously train the model on new data and update its parameters as circumstances evolve. In this way, RAG can lower the computational and financial costs of running LLM-powered chatbots in an enterprise setting. IBM unveiled its new AI and data platform, watsonx, which offers RAG, back in May.

How does it work?

The RAG pipeline systematically analyzes the database for concepts and data that exhibit similarity to the posed question. It then extracts information from a vector database and skillfully restructures this data to form a customized answer aligned with the specific inquiry. This capability positions RAG as a potent tool for companies aiming to leverage their current data repositories, thereby elevating decision-making processes and facilitating improved access to information.

The business impact

The potential applications of RAG in business are extensive, with notable impacts in various key areas:

• Marketing and sales: Utilize RAG to create personalized product descriptions, design targeted email campaigns, and craft dynamic ad copy that effectively resonates with your specific audience.
• Customer service: Implement RAG in the development of chatbots capable of accurately and efficiently answering complex questions. Enhance customer support by providing personalized assistance and even offering proactive help based on customer behavior.
• Content creation: Leverage RAG to generate informative and engaging content, including blog posts, articles, and website copy. Ensure the content is not only factually accurate but also resonates with your audience.
• Market research and analysis: Employ RAG to analyze large data sets of text, identifying trends, patterns, and valuable customer insights. Use this information to make informed business decisions grounded in a deep understanding of market dynamics.

As technology matures and becomes more accessible, we can expect to see it become a fundamental element in successful business communication strategies. By leveraging the power of RAG, businesses can create personalized and engaging experiences for their customers, build trust and loyalty, and ultimately achieve their business goals.

To learn more about RAG and how it works, please go through the detailed link: What is retrieval-augmented generation? | IBM Research Blog.

React 19 Compiler: A Glimpse into the Future of ReactJS

As the React ecosystem continues to evolve, each new version brings groundbreaking features that push the boundaries of web development. With React 18 introducing concurrent features and automatic batching, the anticipation for React 19 is palpable. One of the most exciting prospects is the React 19 Compiler, an advanced toolset aimed at making React applications faster and more efficient. In this post, we'll explore what the React 19 Compiler could look like, its potential features, and how it might revolutionize React development.

What is the React 19 Compiler?

The React 19 Compiler is expected to be an evolution of the experimental React Compiler (code-named "Flight") introduced in earlier versions. This compiler is designed to optimize the way React components are transformed and rendered, providing significant performance enhancements and better developer experience.

Key Features and Benefits

1. Advanced Optimization Techniques:

   The React 19 Compiler would likely include cutting-edge optimization techniques, such as more aggressive tree-shaking, dead code elimination, and component-level caching. These optimizations would reduce bundle sizes and improve application performance significantly.

2. Seamless Server and Client Integration:

   Building on the concepts of Server Components introduced earlier, the React 19 Compiler could offer more seamless integration between server-side and client-side rendering. This would enhance the performance of server-rendered applications, allowing for faster initial loads and smoother transitions.

3. Automatic Code Splitting:

   React 19 Compiler could introduce more sophisticated automatic code splitting, ensuring that only the necessary code is loaded at any given time. This would minimize initial load times and improve the user experience by loading additional code as needed.

4. Enhanced Concurrent Features:

   With React 18's introduction of concurrent rendering, React 19 might further refine these capabilities. The compiler could optimize how concurrent features are handled, making applications more responsive and improving the user experience during heavy rendering tasks.

5. Improved Build Times:

   By leveraging incremental compilation and smarter dependency tracking, the React 19 Compiler could significantly reduce build times. This would make the development process more efficient, allowing developers to iterate faster.

6. Static Site Generation (SSG) Enhancements:

   For developers using frameworks like Next.js, the React 19 Compiler might offer enhanced support for static site generation. This could include better performance optimizations and more flexible configuration options, making it easier to build fast, SEO-friendly static websites.

How Does the React 19 Compiler Work?

While specifics about the React 19 Compiler are speculative, it would likely follow a process similar to its predecessors, but with advanced capabilities:

1. Component Analysis:

   The compiler begins by analyzing your React components to identify static and dynamic parts. It determines the optimal way to transform and render each component based on its usage patterns.

2. Transformation and Optimization:

   Using advanced optimization algorithms, the compiler transforms components into highly efficient JavaScript code. It applies techniques like tree-shaking and dead code elimination to remove unnecessary code and improve performance.

3. Server and Client Split:

   For applications using Server Components, the compiler intelligently splits components between server-rendered and client-rendered parts. This allows for efficient server-side rendering and dynamic client-side updates.

4. Incremental Compilation:

   To improve build times, the React 19 Compiler might use incremental compilation, re-compiling only the parts of the application that have changed. This reduces the overall compilation time and speeds up the development workflow.

5. Output Generation:

   Finally, the compiler generates optimized JavaScript code ready to be bundled and served. This code is leaner, faster, and more efficient than traditional React code.

Getting Ready for the React 19 Compiler

Although React 19 and its compiler are speculative, developers can start preparing for future advancements by:

1. Staying Updated:

   Follow official React announcements, blog posts, and GitHub repositories to stay informed about new developments. The React team regularly shares updates and progress on upcoming features.

2. Experimenting with Current Tools:

   Familiarize yourself with existing tools like Babel, Webpack, and the experimental React Compiler. Understanding these tools will make transitioning to new versions easier.

3. Engaging with the Community:

   Join the React community on platforms like Twitter, GitHub, and developer forums. Engaging with other developers can provide insights and help you stay ahead of the curve.

Conclusion

The React 19 Compiler promises to be a game-changer in the world of web development. With advanced optimization techniques, seamless server and client integration, and improved build times, it is set to make React applications faster, more efficient, and easier to develop. While we eagerly await official details, preparing for these advancements can help developers stay at the forefront of the React ecosystem. The future of React is bright, and the React 19 Compiler is a key part of that exciting journey.

Please refer the reactjs Official Docs for details use cases and implementations ...

A Glimpse into React 19: What's New and Exciting?

 React, the JavaScript library that revolutionized the way we build user interfaces, has continued to evolve with each new version, bringing innovative features and improvements to the developer community. As we step into the era of React 19, it's time to explore the latest enhancements and what they mean for developers and users alike. In this blog post, we'll dive into the key features and updates that make React 19 a significant milestone in the React ecosystem.

Enhanced Performance

One of the primary focuses of React 19 is performance optimization. With each version, the React team strives to make applications faster and more efficient. React 19 introduces several under-the-hood improvements that reduce the overhead and improve the rendering speed of components. These optimizations result in a smoother and more responsive user experience, especially for complex and data-intensive applications.

Concurrent Features

React 19 builds on the foundations of React 18's concurrent features, making it easier for developers to create highly interactive and performant applications. Concurrent rendering allows React to prepare multiple versions of the UI simultaneously, improving responsiveness by allowing tasks like data fetching, user interactions, and animations to happen concurrently without blocking the main thread.

Automatic Batching

React 19 extends the automatic batching capabilities introduced in React 18. Automatic batching groups multiple state updates into a single re-render, reducing the number of renders and improving performance. This feature is now more robust, handling edge cases and complex state updates more gracefully, making it easier for developers to write efficient code without worrying about performance pitfalls.

Improved Developer Experience

React has always prioritized a great developer experience, and React 19 continues this tradition with several enhancements aimed at making development faster, more intuitive, and more enjoyable.

Improved Error Handling

Debugging and error handling are crucial aspects of development, and React 19 introduces better error handling mechanisms. Enhanced error boundaries provide more informative error messages and stack traces, making it easier to identify and fix issues. This improvement reduces the time spent on debugging and allows developers to focus on building features.

Simplified State Management

State management is a critical part of any React application. React 19 simplifies state management with new hooks and APIs that make it easier to manage complex state logic. The new `useSyncState` hook, for example, allows developers to synchronize state across multiple components seamlessly, reducing the need for boilerplate code and improving code readability.

DevTools Enhancements

React DevTools have received significant updates in React 19. The new features include improved support for concurrent features, better profiling capabilities, and enhanced debugging tools. These improvements make it easier for developers to analyze performance, track state changes, and identify bottlenecks in their applications.

Actions 

A common use case in React apps is to perform a data mutation and then update state in response. For example, when a user submits a form to change their name, you will make an API request, and then handle the response. In the past, you would need to handle pending states, errors, optimistic updates, and sequential requests manually.

In React 19, we’re adding support for using async functions in transitions to handle pending states, errors, forms, and optimistic updates automatically.

For example, you can use useTransition to handle the pending state for you:

// Using pending state from Actions

function UpdateName({}) {

const [name, setName] = useState("");

const [error, setError] = useState(null);

const [isPending, startTransition] = useTransition();

const handleSubmit = () => {

startTransition(async () => {

const error = await updateName(name);

if (error) {

setError(error);

return;

}

redirect("/path");

})

};

return (

<div>

<input value={name} onChange={(event) => setName(event.target.value)} />

<button onClick={handleSubmit} disabled={isPending}>

Update

</button>

{error && <p>{error}</p>}

</div>

);

}

useActionState

To make the common cases easier for Actions, we’ve added a new hook called useActionState:

const [error, submitAction, isPending] = useActionState(

async (previousState, newName) => {

const error = await updateName(newName);

if (error) {

// You can return any result of the action.

// Here, we return only the error.

return error;

}

// handle success

return null;

},

null,

);

useActionState accepts a function (the “Action”), and returns a wrapped Action to call. This works because Actions compose. When the wrapped Action is called, useActionState will return the last result of the Action as data, and the pending state of the Action as pending.

useFormStatus

In design systems, it’s common to write design components that need access to information about the <form> they’re in, without drilling props down to the component. This can be done via Context, but to make the common case easier, we’ve added a new hook useFormStatus:

import {useFormStatus} from 'react-dom';

function DesignButton() {

const {pending} = useFormStatus();

return <button type="submit" disabled={pending} />

}

useFormStatus reads the status of the parent <form> as if the form was a Context provider.

useOptimistic

useOptimistic is a React Hook that lets you show a different state while an async action is underway. It accepts some state as an argument and returns a copy of that state that can be different during the duration of an async action such as a network request. You provide a function that takes the current state and the input to the action, and returns the optimistic state to be used while the action is pending.

This state is called the “optimistic” state because it is usually used to immediately present the user with the result of performing an action, even though the action actually takes time to complete.

import { useOptimistic } from 'react';

function AppContainer() {

  const [optimisticState, addOptimistic] = useOptimistic(

    state,

    // updateFn

    (currentState, optimisticValue) => {

      // merge and return new state

      // with optimistic value

    }

  );

}

Use

Call use in your component to read the value of a resource like a Promise or context.

import { use } from 'react';

function MessageComponent({ messagePromise }) {

const message = use(messagePromise);

const theme = use(ThemeContext);

// ...

Unlike React Hooks, use can be called within loops and conditional statements like if. Like React Hooks, the function that calls use must be a Component or Hook.

When called with a Promise, the use API integrates with Suspense and error boundaries. The component calling use suspends while the Promise passed to use is pending. If the component that calls use is wrapped in a Suspense boundary, the fallback will be displayed. Once the Promise is resolved, the Suspense fallback is replaced by the rendered components using the data returned by the use API. If the Promise passed to use is rejected, the fallback of the nearest Error Boundary will be displayed.

Better Support for Server-Side Rendering

Server-side rendering (SSR) has become an essential feature for many React applications, providing better performance and SEO benefits. React 19 brings improvements to SSR, making it faster and more efficient. The new SSR architecture leverages concurrent features to prepare and stream server-rendered content, reducing the time to first byte (TTFB) and improving overall performance.

Streaming SSR

React 19 introduces streaming SSR, allowing developers to stream HTML content to the client as it is being generated. This approach reduces the time users spend waiting for the full page to load, providing a faster and more interactive experience. Streaming SSR also improves the scalability of server-rendered applications, making it easier to handle high traffic loads.

Forward-Looking Features

React 19 is not just about immediate improvements but also sets the stage for future advancements. The React team is continually exploring new ideas and technologies to keep the library at the forefront of web development.

React Server Components

React 19 continues to refine the concept of React Server Components, enabling developers to build applications that combine the best of client-side and server-side rendering. This hybrid approach provides better performance and user experience by allowing parts of the application to be rendered on the server while others are handled on the client.

Experimental Features and APIs

React 19 includes several experimental features and APIs that developers can try out and provide feedback on. These features represent the cutting edge of React development and offer a glimpse into the future direction of the library. By experimenting with these new capabilities, developers can help shape the evolution of React and ensure it continues to meet the needs of modern web applications.

Conclusion

React 19 represents a significant step forward in the evolution of the React ecosystem. With its focus on performance, developer experience, and forward-looking features, React 19 is set to empower developers to build faster, more efficient, and more interactive applications. Whether you are a seasoned React developer or just getting started, React 19 offers a wealth of new tools and capabilities to explore. As always, the React community plays a vital role in shaping the future of the library, and your feedback and contributions are invaluable. Embrace the new possibilities with React 19 and take your web development projects to the next level.