Pair Programming (remote)

[doug_h]

I was wondering if anyone here has done any pair programming. I really like the idea and am interested in trying it. So far i've found only two editors // IDE's that support remote collaboration the first is Eclipse with ECF (Cola) and Notepad++ with the Dochshare plugin. Both follow the same general idea. One client would serve a document (or connect to a server that would manage sharing it) and another user would connect as a client to either the other user or the server. Both users would be presented with the document in question and could edit it live with changes being sync'd to both clients.

It looks like right now the Npp Docshare plugin is really new and there are a lot of details yet to be flushed out but Eclipse's ECF plugin seems to be pretty mature already. It'd be really cool if there were a pair programming competition.

[stingwray]

Whenever I pair programme generally I do it with the other person sitting next to me. It makes things a lot quicker and easier.

What I would like at the moment is some plugin which will use google to read whats going on and display and then something that could read that and put it in an ide. But thats mainly because telephone interviews for google are a pain in the arse at the moment because of having to code into google docs.

[digip]

Sounds like an app that has a text/programming IDE window and chat window on the sidebar would work fine. Being that the IDE window updates on all machines connected to the IDE app, so its not just pair programming, but multi user programming. When one person is done entering code in the IDE, they can click a button to turn over the control to the next available user in a queue, being set up kind of like an IRC chat, where people get "voiced" to chat in IRC, the person would get "privledged" to use the IDE part of the prgram while others can discuss, correct, or brainstorm in the chat window. One person hosting the programming session can pick mods or operators to monitor the session and "privledge" people when their turn is up for the next person to start writing code. This seems like a cool idea if someone could write a program that did all that. It would probably change the way people did progrmming in general, since you could port it to the corporate network and people can collab on code simultaniously in real time, sending PM's of snippets, corrections, additions to the code, as well as live chat in real time, so it makes working across borders, cities, states, countries and the internet a great thing.

Wow. I like the idea of a multi user programming/chat/collab type of app. It would also be good for schools to teach kids programming, since they could also work from home on a college course and interact with the other people in the class and the teacher, while participating in the coding and learning about it. I would like it simply for the ability to just watch and learn as others code and discuss things, and it would allow me to learn much quicker when there is coding going on for something I am interested in.

Then couple the app with an OpenSouce community of programmers where they can search OpenProgrammingChats, kind of like "search iRC" search engine, people can join in and work or watch other projects. Then anyone can download and use the source code on their own to further develop the app for their own use.

EX: If game developers used an app like this each person logged on could take and run the code on their machines to test and debug in real time and then chat back the changes and fixes the made or added to the code. Productivity would increase after a learning curve on how to interact with the program and users in real time.