Google Gives Bard New Coding Capabilities

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Recently, Google added programming help to Bard, making it more useful for both new and experienced developers.

Coding assistance has been near the top of users’ wish lists for new Bard features. On April 21, Google made this happen. Bard now helps with programming in more than 20 languages, like C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript.

Here are some things Bard can do for developers:

  1. Code Creation: Bard can make code based on what you tell it. For example, if you need to write a function for a certain task, Bard can do it for you. This saves you time and effort. Bard works with Google Colab and helps with writing functions for Google Sheets.
  2. Code Explanation: Learning to code can be hard, and even experts might find some code confusing. Bard can help explain code to users, making it easier to understand what the code does and what its result might be.
  3. Debugging Help: Debugging can take a long time, but Bard can help. Bard can help fix code problems, even in code that Bard made. If the code doesn’t work, you can tell Bard to fix it.
  4. Code Improvement: Bard can also make code faster and better. You can ask Bard to make your code work better or find errors you might have missed.
  5. Attribution: One of the more interesting features — if Bard uses a lot of code from an existing project, it will tell you where it got the code.

Bard’s Limits

Bard’s new features are useful, but it’s still an early version. Like ChatGPT, Bard is fully capable of giving you wrong or incomplete code, or code that doesn’t do what you want. You should always double-check Bard’s answers and test your code carefully for mistakes and problems.

Bard’s new coding help is a solid step forward for Google in the arms race to make AI useful for software development. By helping with code creation, explanation, debugging, and improvement, Bard can make coding faster and easier. It doesn’t put Google ahead in that race, mind you, but it is progress. We’re excited to see how people will use Bard’s new features to solve problems and bring their ideas to life.