JetBrains, the company behind PhpStorm and other IDEs, has announced the public launch of the Code With Me service to enable collaborative development and pair programming across the majority of JetBrains IDEs, fundamentally changing the developer experience.
As software developers, we are used to writing code together and helping each other as we run into blocking issues. Code With Me allows developers to invite guests to join you right in your IDE, to investigate issues together, review code, do pair programming, and effectively collaborate in real-time.
“We realize and admit the power of collaborative development, especially at a time when it’s challenging for developers to work together in the office space,” — Ekaterina Kalinina, Product Marketing Manager of Code With Me, says. “We’re launching this service to empower developers across the world to work together and learn from each other”.
Code With Me allows developers to invite guests to join them right in their IDE, to investigate issues together, review code, do pair programming, and effectively collaborate in real-time. All key IDE features such as auto-completion, smart navigation, debugging, and even terminal access are available for guests. With support for audio/video and chats, Code With Me provides a comprehensive solution that makes collaborating a smooth and rich experience. And all of the functionality is offered with end-to-end encryption.
You can use the Code With Me in different ways according to their current needs. The tool enables you:
- Pair programming — collaborative editing, testing, and debugging.
- Swarm programming — simultaneously coding together in a single remote IDE.
- Teaching/Mentoring — inviting a guest or multiple guests to follow along while explaining code.
- Interviewing — conducting technical interviews.
Code With Me is offered under three different plans: Community, Premium, and Enterprise. The community plan is provided free of charge and runs an unlimited number of 30-min collaborative sessions with up to 3 guests. Everyone with an active subscription to a JetBrains IDE automatically gets access to the Premium plan with unlimited session length. Code With Me Enterprise provides an on-premises solution for organizations that require extra security and control over the data.
The team at JetBrains continues to work on bringing new features and functionality to Code With Me and, in the future, plans to introduce a solution that would provide a feature-rich remote development environment on remote servers in the nearest future.
For more information, check out the Code With Me plugin and get started using it today.
