Code With Me: A New Way To Boost Your Kotlin Skills

Ekaterina Kalinina

Read this post in other languages:

• 한국어
,
• 简体中文

Collaborative learning, when learners work together on a shared assignment, makes for a highly-engaged process. Through hearing diverse thoughts, articulating arguments, and brainstorming, learners tend to achieve more complete knowledge and skills as a group than they could individually.

Code With Me is a built-in feature of IntelliJ-based IDEs for collaborative programming that enables developers to work smoothly on the same code base in real time, even when they’re in different locations. They can fix bugs, simultaneously edit the code, navigate and review code, and mentor and help each other with code, all of which makes Code With Me an excellent tool for those who teach, learn, or code in Kotlin.

Collaborative programming for learners

How to boost your Kotlin skills using Code With Me?

Problem-solving

“Show, don’t tell.” Demonstrating how something works can do wonders for the communication in a team. Whenever you need a hand, just invite someone who can help with your Kotlin project. Your guest can run the application to reproduce the problem and suggest a way to solve the issue.

Many Code With Me users are reporting that this scenario is equally useful for remote and hybrid teams, as well as classic offline pair programming sessions because there is no need to crowd around the same computer anymore.

Interactive knowledge-sharing

Collaborative coding is also helpful for those who are improving their programming skills. Studies show that doing something together in an interactive environment facilitates knowledge sharing. Kotlin learners and educators can employ such features of Code With Me as following mode, diff previews, code insights, and of course, simultaneous editing to work on code and build their competence as developers.

Mentoring

As a mentor, you can rely on two scenarios using Code With Me. You can join a session with your mentee to see how they work with code in real time and provide them with feedback, for example, through the built-in audio and video calls. Or you can create a dedicated Kotlin project on your machine and invite your mentee for a guided session to demonstrate how things can be done in concrete examples.

Other common teamwork scenarios for using Code With Me include:

• Code review
• Remote unit testing
• Pair and swarm programming
• Live coding sessions or exams
• Webinars or coding contests

How Code With Me works

As a host, you create a collaborative coding session, choose permissions for your guests, and send them invitations via a link.

Your guests click on the link and join your session. They may or may not have the JetBrains IDE, but they can always access the session through the lightweight JetBrains Client, which is downloaded automatically once they click the link.

Hosts keep control over the code. Guests can join the session only after the host approves their request.

That’s it! If you want to complement your session with an audio or video call, simply tick the Start Call option when creating a new session.

Code With Me and Kotlin in action [live stream recording]

Remember the “show, don’t tell” principle we mentioned earlier? It’s time to do just that! Here’s the recording of the “Kotlin and Code With Me: Tips for Collaborative Programming, Teaching, and Learning” live stream, which was hosted by JetBrains advocates Matt Ellis and Sebastian Aigner on August 11, 2022.

Kotlin and Code With Me: Tips for Collaborative Programming, Teaching, and Learning

Agenda and timestamps

00:00 – Intro

2:00 – What is Code With Me

3:08 – Why collaborative development

5:50 – Key features and architecture

8:50 – What IDEs include Code With Me

9:33 – Licensing

11:20 – Demo

51:25 – Recap: features, licensing

54:35 – More information

55:35 – Q&A

Notable questions and answers

1. Where can I download the Code With Me plugin for Android Studio?

It’s available on JetBrains Marketplace. If you want to provide your feedback and suggestions, or get the recent news about the Code With Me plugin for Android Studio, please follow this YouTrack ticket.

2. ​Is Code With Me a good choice for hosting practical coding interviews?

We believe it can be. JetBrains teams are already using Code With Me for their live coding interviews, for example.

3. Can you run two “run configurations” at the same time? Let’s say you are working on two different modules at the same host and simply want to test code simultaneously.

Yes, it’s possible.

4. I want to use two laptops for the same project. Will Code With Me be useful for me?

Code With Me scenarios are collaborative, meaning there are multiple people involved. If you work alone but would like to access the project from two different machines, you can use JetBrains Gateway or the built-in remote development feature of your IDE. In that case your IDE can be hosted on the powerful remote server while you access it from either of your two laptops.

Note: Remote development and Gateway are available in the majority of paid JetBrains IDEs, excluding their Community editions.

Availability and subscriptions

Code With Me is compatible with all IntelliJ-based IDEs and provides flexible subscriptions.

1. Premium license holders have no limits when it comes to session length or the number of sessions. They can also invite up to 50 guests to join them. Code With Me Premium is included at no extra charge with IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, PhpStorm, GoLand, AppCode, PyCharm Professional, CLion, RubyMine, WebStorm, or All Products Pack subscriptions.

A premium license is also available for free if you have one of the following licenses:

• An Educational (Student, Teacher, or Classroom) license from JetBrains.
• An Open-Source license.
• A Developer Recognition license.

2. The Community license allows you to run an unlimited number of collaborative sessions of up to 30 minutes. You can also invite up to 3 guests to join you. Code With Me Community is available with the Community and Edu editions of IntelliJ IDEA and PyCharm.

The Code With Me plugin for Android Studio also functions under the Community license.

3. An Enterprise subscription allows you to collaborate in an air-gapped environment behind a firewall, host sessions on-premises with up to 100 guests, and benefit from floating licenses. You can evaluate Code With Me Enterprise for 30 days free of charge.

Let us know if you have any questions or suggestions about Code With Me in the comment section below.

Subscribe to JetBrains Blog updates

Subscribe form

By submitting this form, I agree to the JetBrains Privacy Policy Notification icon

By submitting this form, I agree that JetBrains s.r.o. ("JetBrains") may use my name, email address, and location data to send me newsletters, including commercial communications, and to process my personal data for this purpose. I agree that JetBrains may process said data using third-party services for this purpose in accordance with the JetBrains Privacy Policy. I understand that I can revoke this consent at any time in my profile. In addition, an unsubscribe link is included in each email.

Submit

Thanks, we've got you!