Ravi S. Iyer: Software Development

Last updated on 14 Mar 2026 13 March 2026 I had explored using AntiGravity some days back. One thing I noticed is that it was slower to startup than VSCode. So I wanted to have VSCode setup to use Gemini with associated extension and thus be able to benefit from my Google Pro Plan in VSCode. Also I wanted to Gemini CLI to be setup. Gemini Code Assist VSCode extension Extension ID: google.geminicodeassist and publisher is Google. Took long to install and failed to install first time. Airtel conn. quota got probably exhausted. Switched to Jio. Trying again. Started at around 20:08 . Now it is 20:11 ... It got done a little before 20:24! Speed seemed to be 4 to 6 Mbps typically. In Gemini Code Assist (GCA), I signed in with my rG Google a/c. It showed a message about not being able to access pro-snowfall-xhnws (which turned out to be some Google Cloud project). I ignored it. It does not show me Google 3.1 Pro model (it seems to be defaulting to Google 2.5 Flash). [IIRC, it did show me Goo...

Last updated on 13 Mar 2026 Towards the end of last month (Feb 2026), with my Jio 4G mobile recharge, I got a free offer of Google AI Pro plan for 18 months which I accepted.  As the suite of tools provided by Google AI Pro with more powerful features and higher limits than in free tier, were quite new to me, I used the help of Gemini (under AI Pro plan) to navigate through them from a software developer's viewpoint. I also took some inputs from ChatGPT free tier. In parallel, I also tried out some of these tools for quite simple tasks. All these chats and trials were done in end Feb. 2026, IIRC. In the same period, I also put up many blog posts covering these chats and trials. Today, 12 Mar 2026, I added section links to some of these posts. Note that most if not all of these tools are also available in the free tier, but with lesser capability and smaller limits. This post is an index of all the abovementioned posts and section links (jump links) in th...

Dark Reader extension is very helpful in giving dark mode in Blogger Compose window. If we know exactly in which use cases Dark Reader injects its CSS and data attributes bloat to the post HTML and in which use cases it does not, we can avoid the former and use only the latter. The main reference for this section is my post: Discussion and Analysis of Dark Reader Chrome extension test post with Gemini assistance . With Dark Reader extension in "On" state: No Bloat : Typing directly in Compose mode in a div block which does not have Dark Reader styles (--darkreader-) or custom data attributes (data-darkreader-), does NOT inject Dark Reader styles and custom data attributes in the post HTML. So creating a fresh div block in with few dummy characters in 'Edit HTML' mode and then switching back to Compose mode and typing within those dummy characters should result in no Dark Reader styles and data attributes being injected. No Bloat : Special case of above is Compose mode...

Last updated on 11 Mar 2026 20:34, 06 March 2026 Me: Can VSCode terminal with an ongoing session be made a separate window in Windows 11 GSAI (Google Search AI): ... Method 3: Command Palette Open the terminal (Ctrl+`). Press Ctrl+Shift+P to open the Command Palette. Type and select: Terminal: Move Terminal into New Window.  ... Me: Command Palette method worked. Drag and Drop did not work, and Context menu command did not show Move Terminal into Editor Area. ... GSAI said that two terminals are needed for one or both of above methods to work. Confirmed that with two terminals open, I could drag one of the terminal icons on right sidebar onto editor which moved it to an editor tab. Then I could use context menu on tab to move it to a separate (floating) terminal. ------ =================== 14:41, 10 March 2026 Me (on Google Search): VScode temporarily turn off tooltips while typing GSAI (Edited): To temporarily turn off or delay tooltips while typing in Visual Studio Code, you can...

Last updated on 9 Mar 2026 Related publicly shared ChatGPT (CG) chat:  Git handling .xlsx files The context is an Excel workbook having list of posts in a blog that is part of my Blogger Blog Post Size Utility Scripts project - Associated GitHub Public Repo and associated blog post . Given below is a summary provided by CG for above chat which has been slightly edited by me. Managing Excel and Word Files Inside a Git Repository — A Practical Exploration The author explored how Git handles Microsoft Excel ( .xlsx ) files inside a project repository that primarily contains PowerShell scripts and text files. Later the author asked for including Microsoft Word ( .docx ) files in this summary as the same applies to it too.  How Git Stores Excel and Word Files Git treats .xlsx and .docx files as binary blobs , not as structured documents. Unlike text files: Git cannot show meaningful line-by-line diffs. Git cannot intelligently merge concurrent changes. Each modification ...

Last updated on 8 Mar 2026 My recent blog post: Testing Dark Reader Chrome extension addition of darkreader CSS styles to HTML of blog post edited in Compose mode is discussed and analyzed with help of Gemini in this post. Related post:  About using Dark Reader extension while composing Blogger posts without creating darkreader CSS and data attr bloat Related chat for this post: Analyzing Blog Post Bloat and Content Given below is an edited version of related exchange with Gemini (Gem). I saved the contents of 'Edit HTML' view of above blog post in a file post-orig.html and uploaded it to Gemini. Me: 4 Mar. 2026: The uploaded file has a test blog post I created: Testing Dark Reader Chrome extension addition of darkreader CSS styles to HTML of blog post edited in Compose mode Please study the HTML in this file which has the test procedure as well as the data. Then give me your analysis and views. Gem: The HTML content in post-orig.html provides a clear technical demonstratio...