DEV Community: Vishnu Damwala

Google Gemini Hacks to Maximize Your AI Productivity

Vishnu Damwala — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 07:19:16 +0000

Google Gemini is integrated across Docs, Sheets, Gmail, and Google Search. However, most users only run basic, one-off prompts. By configuring a few settings, you can convert the chatbot into an autonomous workspace assistant.

Here is the checklist of the best Gemini hacks for daily productivity:

1. Frame Prompts with Expert Roleplay

Steer the model's sources by asking it to identify what experts say rather than asking for general advice.
Example: “Who are the leading medical experts on [topic] and what do they say about it?” rather than “what is [topic].”

2. Set Up Custom Instructions

Go to Personal Intelligence > Instructions for Gemini in settings to save permanent styling guidelines, code rules, and text limits that apply to all future chats.

3. Create Custom Bots with Gems

Use the Gems feature (for Advanced subscribers) to construct isolated chatbots with specific instructions (e.g., a code auditor or draft editor) to keep your main chat feed organized.

4. Automate Errands with Scheduled Actions

Schedule recurring prompts (like daily calendar summaries or email briefs) to run automatically under settings.

5. Enable Temporary Chats

Click the pencil icon in a dotted circle in the top-right corner to open private chats. These are deleted after 72 hours and are not used to train Google's models.

6. Command High-Quality Citations

Include rules asking the model to only link to primary sources, research papers, and respectable institutions, filtering out search-engine-optimized spam.

7. Edit Side-by-Side in Gemini Canvas

Use the Canvas split-screen layout to edit specific paragraphs or code blocks directly in your workspace without generating unnecessary code boilerplate.

8. Wrap Code in XML Tags

Take advantage of Gemini's 2-million-token context window by uploading whole repositories wrapped in structured XML tags like <source_code> to maintain organization.

Read the complete guide with setup steps and configurations on MeshWorld

🚀 Connect Hermes Agent to Discord: Step-by-Step Gateway Setup

Vishnu Damwala — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:18:10 +0000

🚀 Connect Hermes Agent to Discord: Step-by-Step Gateway Setup

In the recently released v0.17.0 "Reach Release" of Hermes Agent (the open-source autonomous agent framework by Nous Research), setting up platform connections (like Discord, Telegram, and Slack) has migrated to a local browser-based Web Admin Panel, deprecating the older terminal wizards.

Here is the quick checklist to connect your agent to Discord:

1. Discord Developer Portal Config

Create a new application at the Discord Developer Portal.
Under the Bot tab, generate and copy your Bot Token.
Scroll down and enable all three Privileged Gateway Intents (Presence Intent, Server Members Intent, and Message Content Intent). Warning: Message Content Intent is critical; if disabled, the bot cannot read your messages to respond.

2. Invite the Bot

Under Installation, configure default scopes to include bot and applications.commands.
Check required bot permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History, Send Messages in Threads, View Channel, Add Reactions.
Use the generated install link to invite the bot to your Discord server.

3. Configure via Hermes Web UI

In your terminal, start the local panel:

  hermes dashboard

Open http://127.0.0.1:9119 in your browser.
Go to the Gateways tab, click Discord, paste your Bot Token, and hit Save. (You can also set a specific Channel ID filter to prevent the bot from reading all channels).

4. Launch the Bridge

Click Start Gateway in the dashboard, or run:

  hermes gateway start

Verify status with:

  hermes gateway status

Read the complete gateway setup guide with custom start parameters and troubleshooting details on MeshWorld

🎤 Voice Control & Dictation: Hands-Free macOS Productivity 🚀

Vishnu Damwala — Tue, 19 May 2026 19:02:11 +0000

The Scenario: Your hands are full. You're cooking and need to send a quick message. You're experiencing typing strain from a long session. You think faster than you type. The keyboard isn't always the best input method.

macOS includes two voice technologies that transform how you interact with your Mac.

1. Dictation: Speech to Text

Convert spoken words into typed text in any app. Enable in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation. Trigger with double-tap Control. Private, on-device processing with Apple Silicon accuracy.

2. Voice Control: Navigate Hands-Free

More than dictation—full voice navigation:

"Open Safari" → Launches browser
"Click Send" → Triggers button
"Scroll down" → Page navigation
"Select all, delete that" → Text editing

3. Custom Commands

Create voice shortcuts for complex workflows:

"Start work" → Open specific apps and arrange windows
"Take a break" → Pause music, set timer
"Save draft" → Trigger save action

4. Formatting Control

Voice Control handles numbers, symbols, and formatting:

"Insert dollar sign"
"Type 42"
"New paragraph"
"Cap that" (capitalize next word)

Read the full deep-dive on MeshWorld

Ollama Cheat Sheet: Local LLMs, Models, API & Integration (2026)

Vishnu Damwala — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:58:47 +0000

TL;DR

Ollama runs open LLMs locally: Llama 3.3, Mistral, Gemma, DeepSeek, Qwen, Phi, and vision models

ollama run llama3.3 — pull and start in one command

REST API on localhost:11434 — chat completions, generate, embeddings

Python and JavaScript libraries for integration

Modelfile for customizing system prompts, temperature, and context window

Ollama made local LLMs accessible to anyone who could run a Docker container. No Hugging Face model downloads to manage manually. No inference server configuration. ollama run llama3.3 downloads the model and opens a chat session. It has become the standard way to run open models locally, with a library of thousands of community models on top of the official catalog.

Quick Start

# Install (macOS, Linux, Docker)
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

# Pull and run a model
ollama run llama3.3

# Run a single prompt
ollama run llama3.3 "Explain Docker containers in one sentence."

# REST API
curl http://localhost:11434/api/chat -d '{
  "model": "llama3.3:8b",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
  "stream": false
}'

Popular Models (May 2026)

Model	Size	Memory
`llama3.3:70b`	70B	~128GB VRAM
`llama3.3:8b`	8B	~8GB VRAM
`deepseek-r1:8b`	8B	~8GB VRAM
`qwen3:8b`	8B	~8GB VRAM
`gemma3:4b`	4B	~4GB VRAM
`phi4:3.8b`	3.8B	~4GB VRAM
`llava:7b`	7B	~12GB VRAM

Python Integration

pip install ollama

import ollama

response = ollama.chat(
    model='llama3.3:8b',
    messages=[
        {'role': 'system', 'content': 'You are a code reviewer.'},
        {'role': 'user', 'content': 'Review: def add(a, b): return a + b'},
    ]
)
print(response['message']['content'])

# Streaming
for chunk in ollama.chat(model='llama3.3:8b',
                          messages=[{'role': 'user', 'content': 'Hello'}]):
    print(chunk['message']['content'], end='', flush=True)

Originally published at meshworld.in

Claude Opus 4.7: The Good, The Weird, and The Why Your Prompts Just Broke

Vishnu Damwala — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:01:16 +0000

Claude Opus 4.7: What Actually Matters for Developers

Anthropic dropped Claude Opus 4.7 and—plot twist—they admitted it's not their best work. The real beast, Claude Mythos, is locked behind a waitlist because it's "too capable at cybersecurity." Everyone else gets the "safe" version.

Here's what actually matters for developers.

SWE-bench Pro: 64.3% — Up from 53.4%. The gap between 4.6 and 4.7 is bigger than the gap between 4.6 and GPT-5.4 combined.
Vision: 2,576px — Triple the resolution. Your blurry 2 AM screenshots finally make sense.
Prompts are dead — "Make it better" does nothing. 4.7 needs a spec, not vibes.
Same price, more tokens — Tokenizer uses 0-35% more tokens. Your bill will go up.
Cyber capabilities locked — Pentesters need to apply for access. The model refuses security exploits by default.

The Only Benchmark That Matters

Model	SWE-bench Pro	SWE-bench Verified
Claude Opus 4.7	64.3%	87.6%
GPT-5.4	57.7%	—
Gemini 3.1 Pro	54.2%	80.6%
Claude Opus 4.6	53.4%	80.8%

SWE-bench isn't abstract—it's real GitHub issues from Django, scikit-learn, and matplotlib. The model has to understand a codebase, find bugs, write fixes, and verify they work. This is the "can this actually help me ship code" benchmark.

The 10.9 point jump from 4.6 to 4.7 means fewer "please try again" moments at 2 AM.

Can It Actually Code For Hours Without You Watching?

This is the main event. 4.7 claims 14% improvement in multi-step agentic tasks with one-third the tool errors. It coordinates multiple workstreams in parallel and passes "implicit-need tests" where it figures out what tools it needs without you explicitly telling it.

The scenario: It's 11 PM. You've been avoiding refactoring your auth system for three months because it's 200+ files of spaghetti. You fire up Claude Code with Opus 4.7, describe what you want, and go to bed.

With 4.6, you'd wake up to a half-finished disaster or subtle bugs that'd hit production at the worst moment. With 4.7, it sustains focus across the entire codebase, coordinates changes across multiple files, catches its own mistakes, and keeps going through tool failures that would have stopped 4.6 dead.

I tested a 4-hour session. It held coherent context the entire time. The degradation that used to happen? Gone.

Vision That Actually Works

Previous Claude models capped at 1,568 pixels (~1.15MP). Opus 4.7 handles 2,576 pixels / 3.75 megapixels. That's dense enough to read fine print in diagrams and extract data from complex charts.

The scenario: It's 2 AM. Production is on fire. Your error logs are a wall of red text across three monitors. You screenshot the chaos, paste it to Claude, and pray.

At 4.6's resolution, it might miss the critical line buried in the noise—the database timeout causing the cascade, not the prominent auth errors. At 4.7's resolution, it reads dense screenshots properly, identifies the actual root cause, and tells you exactly which config to change.

Bonus: coordinate mapping is now 1:1 with actual pixels. No more scale-factor math for UI automation.

Your Prompts Are Broken

4.7 is substantially more literal. Prompts that relied on "filling in the blanks" will produce unexpected or minimal results.

Before (4.6):

"Make this function better"

After (4.7):

"Refactor this function to handle null inputs, add error logging, 
and ensure it returns a consistent type. The function currently 
crashes on line 47 when user.email is undefined."

Budget time to re-tune your prompt library before migrating production systems.

Breaking Changes

Extended Thinking Budgets Are Gone — The thinking: {"type": "enabled", "budget_tokens": N} pattern returns a 400 error. Use thinking: {"type": "adaptive"} with output_config: {"effort": "high"} instead.
Sampling Parameters Are Gone — Setting temperature, top_p, or top_k to non-default values returns a 400 error. Remove them and use prompting to guide behavior.
Thinking Content Is Hidden By Default — The model still thinks, but you won't see the reasoning stream unless you opt in with thinking: {"type": "adaptive", "display": "summarized"}.

Should You Upgrade?

Yes if: You do long-running coding tasks, vision-heavy work, or complex agentic workflows. The SWE-bench jump translates to shipping code instead of debugging why the model hallucinated an API.

No if: You're happy with 4.6 for simple chat—you won't notice much difference.

Pricing: Same per-token price ($5/$25 per million), but the new tokenizer means 0-35% more tokens. Monitor usage after migration.

→ Read the full deep-dive with code examples, AWS Bedrock setup, and detailed FAQ

Originally published on MeshWorld India.

Constructor in JAVA

Vishnu Damwala — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 09:37:17 +0000

In this article, we will go through Java constructors, their types with the help of examples.

What is a Constructor?

Constructor is a special member function in JAVA whose name is the same as the class name. It is used to initialize objects at the time of their creation.

Example 1: Java constructor

class DemoExample {
    DemoExample() {
        // constructor body
    }
}

Here, DemoExample() is a constructor. It has the same name as that of the class and does not have any return type, not even void.

Constructor in JAVA

It has no return type, not even void.

It is invoked at the time of object creation or when an instance is created.

Types of Constructor

No-Arguments Constructor
Parameterized Constructor
Default Constructor

No-Arguments Constructor

The no-argument constructor is a constructor that does not accept any parameters/arguments.

Example 2: Java No-argument constructor

class Rectangle {
    double length, width;

    //No-argument constructor
    Rectangle() {
        setDetails(52, 47);
    }

    void setDetails(double l, double w) {
        length = l;
        width = w;
    }

    void display() {
        System.out.println("-----------------------");
        System.out.println("Length: " + length);
        System.out.println("Width: " + width);
        System.out.println("Area: " + calcArea());
    }

    double calcArea() {
        return length * width;
    }
}

class ConstructorDemo1 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle();
        r1.display();
    }
}

Example 2 Output

----------------------------
Length: 52.0
Width: 47.0
Area: 2444.0

Parameterized Constructor

The Java parameterized constructor can also accept one or more parameters/arguments.
Such constructors are known as parameterized constructors or constructors with parameters.

Example 3: Java Parameterized Constructor

class Rectangle {
    double length, width;

    //Parameterized constructor
    Rectangle(double l, double w) {
        setDetails(l, w);
    }

    void setDetails(double l, double w) {
        length = l;
        width = w;
    }

    void display() {
        System.out.println("-----------------------");
        System.out.println("Length: " + length);
        System.out.println("Width: " + width);
        System.out.println("Area: " + calcArea());
    }

    double calcArea() {
        return length * width;
    }
}

class ConstructorDemo2 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle(101, 70);
        r1.display();
    }
}

Example 3 Output

----------------------------
Length: 101.0
Width: 70.0
Area: 7070.0

Default Constructor

The Java compiler will create a no-argument constructor automatically when the user-defined constructor is not explicitly declared. Such constructor is known as the default constructor.
Each class has its own default constructor.
The Default constructor do not accept arguments.
Constructor declared by compiler initializes the object with default values.
Once the user defines its own default constructor, the compiler will use it to initialize an object.

Example 4: Java Default Constructor

class Rectangle {
    double length, width;

    void display() {
        System.out.println("-----------------------");
        System.out.println("Length: " + length);
        System.out.println("Width: " + width);
    }
}

class ConstructorDemo3 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle();
        r1.display();
    }
}

Example 4 Output

----------------------------
Length: 0.0
Width: 0.0

Any uninitialized instance variables will be initialized with default values by the default constructor.

Type	Default Value
boolean	`false`
byte	`0`
short	`0`
int	`0`
long	`0L`
char	`\u0000`
float	`0.0f`
double	`0.0d`
object	`Reference null`

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Dart - Comments

Vishnu Damwala — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 15:03:18 +0000

The comments are notes that developers can add in source code and are ignored by compilers. It's an art of describing what your code does and may be why. These comments are not evaluated.

It increases the code readability for other developers as well as self that allows to provide information of what tricky things are done within the code for better understanding and maintenance.

In this article, we will look into different types of comments supported by Dart.

The comments in Dart can be done in following different ways:

Single-line comments //
Multi-line comments /* ... */
Single-line Doc comments ///
Multi-line Doc comments /** ... */

Single-line comments in Dart

Single line comment can be done by // i.e double slash or double forward slash.

// this is a single-line comment

Multi-line comments in Dart

Multi-line comment also known as block comment. It can be done by /* ... */.

/*
  this is a multi-line comment
  we can also wrap code that is quite useful during debugging or development
*/

Dart guide suggests us to single-line comment //. The block comment (/* ... */) should only be used temporarily to comment out a section of code.

Single-line Doc comments in Dart

Doc comments parsed by dartdoc generates beautiful doc pages from them. A comment is any comment that appears before a declaration is called as Doc comment.

Doc comments also supports Markdown formatting

Single line Doc comment can be done by /// i.e triple slash or triple forward slash.

You can find usage of it in dart:io library available on GitHub

/// this is a single-line comment

Multi-line Doc comments in Dart

Multi line Doc comment can be done by `/ ... */`**. Below is an example of multi-line Doc comment.

/**
  * ** Important:** Browser-based apps can't use this library.
  * Only the following can import and use the dart:io library:
  *   - Servers
  *   - Command-line scripts
  *   - Flutter mobile apps
  *   - Flutter desktop apps
  */

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Install XAMPP on Ubuntu

Vishnu Damwala — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 05:21:50 +0000

A XAMPP is one of the most popular cross-platform PHP development environment. It is an open source package that can be easily install and to use.

XAMPP stands for cross-platform (X), Apache (A), MariaDB (M), PHP (P), and Perl (P).

XAMPP has been used widely by developers and has been around here with huge support of community since more than 10 years. It's currently available on Windows, Linux & Mac platforms while writing this article.

To download the Linux installer head over to the Download page. Here you will find latest release as well as previous versions.

While writing this article, the latest release version is 8.0.6. In this article, we will see how to install this open-source application in Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distributions. Follow the same steps to install into other Ubuntu-based Distros.

Install XAMPP on Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based Distros

Download the XAMPP installer

Head over to XAMPP Home page and select XAMPP for Linux, that contains direct link that can be used for the latest version.

Once it's downloaded, open your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T), head over to your directory where your installer has been saved and run the below commands with sudo privileges to change the permission.

sudo chmod 755 xampp-linux-*-installer.run

This command will give permission to the installer.

Note: Replace xampp-linux-*-installer.run with actual file name.

Run the XAMPP installer

sudo ./xampp-linux-*-installer.run

This command will start the installer wizard. Proceed with installation, make changes if you need. By default it will be installed in /opt/lampp/ directory, you can customize the installation directory too.

Install supporting package

sudo apt install net-tools -fy

This command will install netstat that is a part of the net-tools package.

Start, Stop & Restart Server

Start, Stop & Restart Server via command line aka CLI

Start the server with below command

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

Stop the server with below command

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop

Restart the server with below command

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp restart

Start, Stop & Restart Server via Graphical User Interface aka GUI

Execute the below command to launch graphical manager

sudo /opt/lampp/manager-linux-x64.run

Create alias or shortcuts for commands for Bash Shell

Below command will create an alias for command for Bash shell, so you only need to use lamppStart to launch the graphical manager. You might need to reopen the terminal to use this newly added alias.

echo "alias lamppStart='cd /opt/lampp/ && sudo ./manager-linux-x64.run'" >> ~/.bashrc

Creating a launcher icon

With the below code, you can create it a launcher icon.

cat > ~/.local/share/applications/postman.desktop <<EOL
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.2
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XAMPP
Exec=sh -c "pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY sudo /opt/lampp/manager-linux-x64.run"
Icon=/opt/lampp/htdocs/favicon.ico
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;Development;
MimeType=text/html
EOL

Uninstall XAMPP

To uninstall XAMPP, open the terminal and navigate to the opt/lampp directory with the below command.

 cd /opt/lampp

Execute the below command to uninstall XAMPP.

 sudo ./uninstall

The prompt dialogue box will open asking for your confirmation to uninstall XAMPP and all of its modules.
Finally, remove the lampp installation directory with below command.

 sudo rm –r /opt/lamp

Conclusion

After reading this article, you will be able install XAMPP on Ubuntu or Linux devices.

XAMPP allows you to set up a free development environment on your system. It is a set of tools that allows you to get your site up and running much easily & quickly. An alternative to installing and configuring individual components.

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Python - Arithmetic Operators

Vishnu Damwala — Tue, 25 May 2021 17:22:30 +0000

Python supports different arithmetic operators that can be used to performs mathematical calculations on the values and variables.

The basic arithmetic operations include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.

Arithmetic operations are performed according to the order or precedence of operators.

The general structure of every expression

Every expression will follow this general structure

Operand Operator Operand [Operator Operand] ...

Operand represents data.
An operator is a symbol used to operate such as mathematical, logical or relational producing a final result.
For example, x + y where x and y are operands and + is an operator.
For example, a = 7 where, = is an operator and a and 7 are operands.

In this article, you will find Arithmetic operators provided by Dart.

Arithmetic operators

Basic mathematical calculations are performed on numeric values with the use of arithmetic operators.

Operator	Description	Example
`+`	Addition	`x + y`
`-`	Subtraction	`x - y`
`-expr`	Unary minus, aka negation (reverse the sign of the expression)	`-x`
`*`	Multiplication	`x * y`
`/`	Division (aka True division)	`x / y`
`//`	Divide, returning an integer result (aka Floor division)	`x // y`
`%`	Get the remainder of an integer division (modulo)	`x % y`
`**`	Exponential	`x ** y`

All of these listed operators are binary operators.
All these operators also follow the general structure of Operand Operator Operand, meaning that an operator is always surrounded by two operands.
The ** operator is evaluated first; then * , / , // , and % operators are evaluated next (from left to right); and the + and - operators are evaluated last (also from left to right).
To override the usual precedence, parentheses () comes handy.
For example, an expression x + y is a binary operation, where x and y are the two operands and + is an operator.

Addition (`+`)

The plus (+) is used for addition in the Python PL.

In [1]: 3 + 4
Out[1]: 7

Subtraction (`-`)

The minus or hyphen (-) is used for subtraction in the Python PL.

In [2]: 13 - 3
Out[2]: 10

Unary minus (`-`)

The minus or hyphen (-) is used as a unary minus operator in the Python PL.
The unary minus is used to show a negative number.
The unary minus - operator negates the value of an operand.

In [3]: -3
Out[3]: -3

Multiplication (`*`)

The asterisk (*) is used as a multiplication operator in the Python PL.

In [4]: 7 * 4
Out[4]: 28

Division (`/`)

The forward slash (/) is used as a division operator in the Python PL. Also known as True division.

In [5]: 24 / 4
Out[5]: 6.0

Floor Division (`//`)

The double forward slash (//) is used as a floor division operator in the Python PL. Also known as integer division operator.
This operator yields the highest integer, ignoring the decimal part. Yielded integer is not greater than the actual divided result.

In [6]: 11 / 4
Out[6]: 2.75

In [7]: 11 // 4
Out[7]: 2

On dividing 11 by 4 with / operator, the output obtained is 2.75. But by using // operator output obtained with the same values is 2 i.e not greater than the actual answer 2.75.

Modulus (`%`)

The percentage (%) is used as mod or remainder operator in the Python PL. Also known as MOD or Remainder operator.
It also works with floating-point values.

In [10]: 24 % 7
Out[10]: 3

In [11]: 24 % 3.5
Out[11]: 3.0

Exponential (`**`)

The double asterisk ** operator is used to perform the exponential operation in Python PL.

In [10]: 2 ** 5
Out[10]: 32

In [11]: 1.5 ** 5
Out[11]: 7.59375

Note: Python exponential operator ** works in the same way as the pow(a, b) function.

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Get Last Array Element in PHP and Laravel

Vishnu Damwala — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 08:06:43 +0000

Laravel provides the last() function as a global helper and also as a function defined in Illuminate\Support\Arr that can be used to get the last element in an array.

This article, guide through the different ways of retrieving the last array element in PHP also in Laravel. So you can decide which suits you best.

How to get the last item in the array?

Retrieve the last element in PHP

In PHP, to get the last element from an array, first, you need to count the total array elements

$languages = [
  'JAVA',
  'PHP',
  'C++',
  'C#',
  'Python',
];
$totalElements = count($languages);
echo $languages[$totalElements - 1];

Above code will output Python i.e the last element in a provided array.
It is a more readable approach, can also be rewritten in a single line as shown, which sometimes looks complex for beginners.

echo $languages[count($languages) - 1];

Python

Retrieve the last element in Laravel

In Laravel, you can get the last array element in two ways.

Using global last() helper.
Using the static method of Arr class named last().

Using global `last()` helper

The last() helper function returns the last element in the given array:

$carBrands = [
  'Maserati',
  'Tesla',
  'Tata',
  'Aston Martin',
  'Audi',
  'Alfa Romeo',
];
echo last($carBrands);

Above code will output Alfa Romeo i.e the last element in a provided array named $carBrands.

Using `last()` function in Arr class

The last() helper function returns the last element in the given array.
Before using it, remember to import using the use Illuminate\Support\Arr; statement.

Syntax

$last = Arr::last($array, $callback, $default);

The first parameter is a source array, from which the last element is to be found. It's a required parameter.
The second parameter is a callback function, that can be either helpful to filter & retrieve the last element based on conditions. It's an optional parameter.
The third parameter is a default value & it will be returned if none of the array elements passes the truth test.

$fruits = [
  'Orange 🍊',
  'Apple 🍎',
  'Grapes 🍇',
  'Kiwi 🥝',
  'Mango 🥭',
];

echo Arr::last($fruits);

Above code will output Mango 🥭 i.e the last element in a provided array named $fruits.

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Install Telegram on Ubuntu 20.04 or Ubuntu-based distributions

Vishnu Damwala — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:37:46 +0000

Telegram is a free instant messaging tool with a focus on simplicity, security, speed, and synced across all your devices.

Telegram can be used on all your devices simultaneously - with any number of your phones, tablets, or computers syncing your messages or files seamlessly.

Telegram allows you to share messages, photos, videos, and files of any type (doc, zip, mp3, etc) in a secured and safe manner.

Everything on Telegram is encrypted using a combination of 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, 2048-bit RSA encryption, and Diffie–Hellman secure key exchange including chats, groups, media, etc.

I've been using it for more than 5 years and saw it evolving. The telegram is a cross-platform, open-source, and powerful messaging app developed by Pavel Durov, Nikolai Durov and Axel Neff
. The repository for source code is available on GitHub.

Some of the supported available features

Telegram is so simple to use it.
The messages are self-destructing and encrypted heavily.
Share unlimited media in terms of number & size.
Completely customize your messenger.
Telegram has an open API.
Video & audio calling
Free and open-source
Drag and drop media
and many more.

In this article, we will see how to install this open-source messaging app in Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distributions. Follow the same steps to install into other Ubuntu-based distributions:

Install Telegram

Telegram can be installed via the Snapcraft store as a snap package or with apt or via official tarball.

Method 1: Installing Telegram as a Snap Package

Canonical manages and distributes the Telegram snap package, the one behind Ubuntu.

Snap packages are secure & easy to upgrade. As Snaps are self-contained software packages. It includes all dependencies needed to run an application.

Snap packages can be installed either from the Ubuntu Software application or via command-line.

Via Terminal

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the below command with sudo privileges

sudo snap install telegram-desktop

This command will install the latest Telegram and other dependencies too. The snap package will automatically update(in the background) whenever a new version of Telegram is released.

We can also install from Ubuntu Software, search for Telegram and install the application.

Method 2: Official Telegram Download

Telegram also provides you an official desktop application that can be downloaded from their official Telegram website. Or head over to Desktop App section which lets you download a Telegram desktop app installer that is supported on a variety of operating systems, including MAC, Android, Windows, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and many more.

Source: telegram.org

Click an official link below to download the tarball package for Linux distribution (including Ubuntu) which contains a standalone Telegram runtime and updater:

Download Telegram for Linux (64-bit .tar.xz)

Download Telegram for Linux (32-bit .tar.xz)

To run Telegram using archive package is easy. Extract the tar.xz archive, enter into the extracted folder, then double-click on the telegram binary inside to launch the app.

You can then follow the setup instructions wizard that appears on your screen.

Note: This method does not "install" the app on your system. But it will add a Telegram app shortcut to your system app launcher menu.

Do not delete the binary file. The shortcut is linked to this binary file

Method 3: Installing from official PPA using terminal

A PPA for Telegram is available for download. First, we need to add PPA to our system.

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the below commands with sudo privileges.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/telegram
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -f telegram

Single line command

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/telegram &&\
sudo apt update &&\
sudo apt install -f telegram

This command will install the Telegram with other dependencies and fixes broken packages if any. It can be updated through the command-line or your Software Update tool

Run application

Once the installation is done, we can now run telegram from application launcher.

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Hope you find this helpful!

Keep helping and happy 😄 coding

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Configure user name & email for Git profile using terminal

Vishnu Damwala — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 03:46:46 +0000

Git allows you to configure a global and per-project Git profile consisting of name and email address.

Git commands come handy when you want to set or change your git identity. Changes only affect future commits.

Set or update user name for local Git profile using terminal

The first thing you should do when you install Git is to set your name and email address.

This is important because every Git commit uses this information. By default this information will be used if none other specified.

And it's immutably baked into the commits you create.

Commands to configure Git user profile

git config --global user.name "your-name"
git config --global user.email "your-email"

The --global option will set your global commit name & email address.

Once done, verify that the information is configured by executing below command in terminal:

git config --list

Example

git config --global user.name "Jane Doe"

git config --global user.email "jane.doe@example.com"

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Happy 😄 coding

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DEV Community: Vishnu Damwala

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Python Integration

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Constructor in JAVA

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Download the XAMPP installer

Run the XAMPP installer

Install supporting package

Start, Stop & Restart Server

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Create alias or shortcuts for commands for Bash Shell

Creating a launcher icon

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Conclusion

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Addition (+)

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Unary minus (-)

Multiplication (*)

Division (/)

Floor Division (//)

Modulus (%)

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Using global last() helper

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Unary minus (`-`)

Multiplication (`*`)

Division (`/`)

Floor Division (`//`)

Modulus (`%`)

Exponential (`**`)

Using global `last()` helper

Using `last()` function in Arr class