This week I spent some time working with Google Gemini for coding assistance, and I also set up a Samba file server on my Linux Mint machine. Here’s what I learnt:

Coding with Google Gemini

As I mentioned last week, I decided to switch my Flutter development from VS Code with Github Copilot to Android Studio and use Google Gemini for coding assistance. Yep I know I could have just installed the Gemini Code Assist plugin in VS Code, but I wanted a challenge!

My initial, non scientific gut feeling is I prefer GitHub Copilot. First off, the lack of an agent mode in Gemini means I have to work in the chat window, copying and pasting the code it produces into my project. Second, I couldn’t get the chat window to read the context from my current file, meaning I had to paste code into the chat window for it to understand my existing code. Finally Gemini felt slower than Copilot at code completion suggestions, which slowed down my coding flow. However, Gemini did seem to understand Flutter and Dart much better than Copilot, which meant the code it produced was more useful and required less manual corrections.

I will continue to use Android Studio and Gemini for now and see if I can get used to it. Maybe when Android Studio 2025.1 is released it will have better integration with Gemini, as it is currently in beta.

Samba Server on Linux Mint

This week I spent some time trying to setup a Samba file server on my Linux Mint machine. I wanted to share files across my home network with other devices. Just to make things extra fun I decided to do it all through the command line rather than using the GUI tools. I followed a few different guides but nothing seemed to be working, until I realised I hadn’t allowed Samba through the firewall! Once I did that everything started working as expected. I may add a seperate post on how I set it up.

And Finally…

This week I have also…

🎧 Listened to: Ghost and Iron Maiden
🍿 Watched: Cold Case
🤣 Found Funny: Stevie Martin - Verifying that you’re not a robot, Trying to print something and When you forget your password