HACKER Q&A
📣 kypro

How do you debug code with devs remotely?


I love using IntelliJ's "Code With Me" feature for remote pair programming, but often I'll get a message from a developer needing a little help with a small piece of code. They're often using different IDEs, and often they've not used "Code With Me" before so I don't want to make them do a bunch of setup just so I can have a shared text editor to assist them from.

What generally happens instead is they'll screen share and show me some code they're working on then I'll try to problem solve in my head and read aloud the code they need – "Add a new method below line 50", "create a new variable", "return an arrow function". This works fairly well with other senior devs because I can communicate at a higher level what's need and they'll write something that functionally resembles what's in my head. But I find this can get extremely complicated when the developer isn't that well versed in the syntax or libraries I'm proposing they implement and most of the time I'll end up reciting code from my head symbol by symbol – "open close brackets, space, equals, greater than". And wherever possible I'll copy small chunks across in Slack for them to copy paste.

This works, but it's not the best experience either for me or the developer I'm trying to help. Ideally what I'd love is a super simple way to remotely edit code in whatever IDE they're using from a Slack Huddle call, but I'm not sure any such thing exists (or would be possible).

Does anyone have any suggestions for better ways to remotely debug with other devs? Keen to know what works well for others here.


  👤 layer8 Accepted Answer ✓
Screen-sharing software usually allows giving the other party control over keyboard and mouse. You could ask the other dev to give you control so that you can type in their IDE.