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Free AI-Powered Kite Code Assistant Supports 11 New Languages
The team behind the Kite code completion tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) has announced support for 11 new programming languages, including Java, Kotlin, Scala, Python, C/C++, Object C, JavaScript, and C#. The free, downloadable Kite engine plugin supports a total of 16 languages, as well as 16 code editors, including Android Studio, Atom, JupyterLab, Spyder, Sublime Text, VS Code, and Vim, as well as the entire IntelliJ dev tools lineup.
Kite, which suggests code snippets for developers in real time, is billed as "an AI copilot that helps programmers write code." The plugin's code completions are powered by a deep machine learning model, said the company's founder, Adam Smith, in a blog post.
"Kite's AI-powered completions predict what you're going to type next," Smith explained. "How is this useful? It saves you typing when you already know what you're going to type. It also saves you documentation lookups when you can't remember the name of an API or how to use it… Because completions help you with every keystroke, the savings add up. Kite writes about 175 "words" of code every day for our more active users, and as we make the product smarter that number will only go up."
The Kite team has focused extra efforts on Python, which continues to grow popularity, and the VS Code dev team has gone all in. Kite added JavaScript support in May.
The "classic" version of Kite is available for free, but two fee-based versions--Python Pro and Team Server--are also available.
The free version provides:
- Line-of-code completions for 12 languages
- Python function signatures as you type
- Python documentation
The tool can be downloaded here.
While other code-completion tools are available for VS Code, Kite earlier this year claimed its tooling differentiates itself with characteristics such as:
- Complete multiple lines of code at a time
- Provide completions when editors like VS Code cannot understand the code
- Show completions in more situations, for example after a space
- Work alongside VS Code's and other editors' code-completion tools
"The JavaScript ecosystem continually invents new frameworks and design patterns," said Daniel Hung, Kite product manager, in the May announcement of JavaScript support. "These inventions make it a vibrant place to be, but it also creates the need to learn an ever-changing set of code patterns and APIs."
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.