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Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

tuple.app

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Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#51

Post by jpgvm »

ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I've worked at companies with 20 employees, and companies with 100,000 employees, and not once have I ever been asked to participate in pair programming. It would have been immensely useful in college, but VS Code already has a built-in tool that would do the job... and VS Code works on operating systems that I actually use. Who is using this? What do you use it for? I don't mean to be facetious, I have just never be…

They are excellent for mentoring. As a remote senior engineer I'm not able to simply stand over someones shoulder but I can offer to drop into a peer programming session and help someone through a problem and be able to take the keyboard and show them different approaches etc. Without these tools I don't think I could do my job effectively.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#52

Post by smashedtoatoms »

ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I've worked at companies with 20 employees, and companies with 100,000 employees, and not once have I ever been asked to participate in pair programming. It would have been immensely useful in college, but VS Code already has a built-in tool that would do the job... and VS Code works on operating systems that I actually use. Who is using this? What do you use it for? I don't mean to be facetious, I have just never be…

I have worked in FAANG and in 10 person startups and have paired in them all. VSCode is fine if you're all using VSCode and don't need to screen share anything outside of VSCode. If everyone is on mac though, there is nothing better than Tuple that I have used. If one party uses IntelliJ and another uses vim, and you need to have a db client or browser or something open as well, Tuple is fantastic.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#54

Post by smashedtoatoms »

jpgvm wrote: post #51
ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I've worked at companies with 20 employees, and companies with 100,000 employees, and not once have I ever been asked to participate in pair programming. It would have been immensely useful in college, but VS Code already has a built-in tool that would do the job... and VS Code works on operating systems that I actually use. Who is using this? What do you use it for? I don't mean to be facetious, I have just never be…

They are excellent for mentoring. As a remote senior engineer I'm not able to simply stand over someones shoulder but I can offer to drop into a peer programming session and help someone through a problem and be able to take the keyboard and show them different approaches etc. Without these tools I don't think I could do my job effectively.

Same! I also find I learn all kinds of new tricks from jr and sr devs alike. Pairing is programming with the cheat codes on.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#55

Post by kccqzy »

r00k wrote: post #13

Hi folks! I'm one of Tuple's cofounders. Happy to hear any feedback or answer questions :)

In places I've worked in, there's very little pair programming culture. If a dev needs help, maybe the reaction is "push your code to a special branch and I'll take a look later" or if it's really urgent "use screen sharing" instead. A lot of that comes down to different environments: some use Emacs, others use Vim, yet others use VSCode, and remote control isn't really effective because of all the different shortcuts and UI and customizations. That's before even different personal preferences for different tools: I want IDE-like integrated error messages right beside my code, they want error messages in a separate terminal window, etc, etc. Simple screen sharing and dictating things to do is good enough in that case. And if both persons are at least somewhat familiar with the language, you wouldn't be dictating token-by-token.

How do you solve that problem?

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#56

Post by PascLeRasc »

ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I've worked at companies with 20 employees, and companies with 100,000 employees, and not once have I ever been asked to participate in pair programming. It would have been immensely useful in college, but VS Code already has a built-in tool that would do the job... and VS Code works on operating systems that I actually use. Who is using this? What do you use it for? I don't mean to be facetious, I have just never be…

You've correctly identified why Windows isn't worth their time.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#57

Post by r00k »

univerio wrote: post #45
glenjamin wrote: post #31

I really like using tuple, but there’s a couple of things I’d really like to see: - an idea of how much bandwidth it’s currently using or needs. I often find if I’m on a patchy connection it’s unclear how changing the settings will have an effect - make the video face stuff more prominent, especially for multiple monitors. I work 100% remote so when pairing I like to put my Co-workers full size on my second screen wh…

+1 on making video better. The janky video feature feels like such an afterthought compared to the impeccable screensharing/pairing feature. I've had to resort to using Tuple with Zoom just for the video sometimes because the webcam freezes for no reason. I'll also offer one related piece of feedback: the "calling" metaphor for initiating a session is quite awkward. Compared to Zoom, where you share a link/code once…

I agree with all of this! Thanks for writing it up.

Improving webcams (a lot), URL-based rooms, and never having a call interrupted by a required update are all on my list for next year.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#59

Post by sodapopcan »

kccqzy wrote: post #55
r00k wrote: post #13

Hi folks! I'm one of Tuple's cofounders. Happy to hear any feedback or answer questions :)

In places I've worked in, there's very little pair programming culture. If a dev needs help, maybe the reaction is "push your code to a special branch and I'll take a look later" or if it's really urgent "use screen sharing" instead. A lot of that comes down to different environments: some use Emacs, others use Vim, yet others use VSCode, and remote control isn't really effective because of all the different shortcut…

Until recently, I spent the whole pandemic exclusively remote pairing. We always did driver/navigator and never did any controlling of each other screens. If we switched roles we’d just pull the branch and work on our own machines. Tuple is nice for doing that quickly as you can just take over sharing without having to ask the other person to stop first. Its markup tools are very nice and simple, too.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#60

Post by r00k »

latchkey wrote: post #46
r00k wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep! Hoping to make it GA soon. https://tuple.app/linux

I just about closed the window and dismissed you entirely based on this on the pricing page... Do you support Linux and Windows? Not yet! We're Mac-only for now. If you'd like to hear when we launch support for those OSs, please drop your email in this form. If you have something in beta or coming soon, you should update it to send people to that more actionable link instead.

Good point! Pushing an update now. Thank you.
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