Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming • Hacker News Board

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#11

Post by djeikyb » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:16 AM UTC

snarf21 wrote: post #10

I used to think there was a lot of value in the concept of pair programming but I think the Pull Request and Code Review model is simply superior. It allows for a lot of the benefits of pair programming but with lower costs. I've always found that even looking over someone's shoulder to help debug something slows to a crawl. It takes more discipline than most engineers have to keep it truly paired.

What kind of pair programming have you engaged in, beyond the "debug over the shoulder" scenario?

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#12

Post by danellis » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:29 AM UTC

What about a shared whiteboard, though? That's the one thing I'm missing at the moment. Using one of those with a couple of nice graphics tablets would be great.

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#13

Post by brightball » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:45 AM UTC

rekwah wrote: post #8

brightball wrote: post #7

The system that Slack bought was the best I've seen. Can't remember the name of it though.

Guessing you're talking about Screenhero. https://screenhero.com/

That's it. That system was fantastic.

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#14

Post by caiob » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:51 AM UTC

W0lf wrote: post #6

I've used a shared tmux session over ssh in the past, which worked quite nicely without installing any extra software (besides tmux obviously)

Is Wemux (https://github.com/zolrath/wemux) still relevant?

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#15

Post by macintux » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 2:08 AM UTC

danellis wrote: post #12

What about a shared whiteboard, though? That's the one thing I'm missing at the moment. Using one of those with a couple of nice graphics tablets would be great.

I have lamented the lack of a good online whiteboard experience for decades now. I think the real problem is that for a proper whiteboard, we need obscenely large and high-resolution displays.

Analog is much better than digital in this particular.

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#16

Post by TheAceOfHearts » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 2:40 AM UTC

snarf21 wrote: post #10

I used to think there was a lot of value in the concept of pair programming but I think the Pull Request and Code Review model is simply superior. It allows for a lot of the benefits of pair programming but with lower costs. I've always found that even looking over someone's shoulder to help debug something slows to a crawl. It takes more discipline than most engineers have to keep it truly paired.

I've had a occasionally successful pair-coding experiences, but I'd say I generally agree with you. Pull requests and code reviews have a lot of benefits. It lets the team work asynchronously, so you can collaborate more effectively with remote workers from around the world. As you make some changes, other people in your team might be interested in the reasoning which lead to that decision, and you can point to the pull request's discussion. In addition, it lets you think about the problem over a longer period of time, without putting anyone "on the spot"; sometimes you just need to let things stew for a bit.

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#17

Post by patrick_haply » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 2:42 AM UTC

brightball wrote: post #13

rekwah wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guessing you're talking about Screenhero. https://screenhero.com/

That's it. That system was fantastic.

Was? Are you saying you don't hold that opinion anymore, or do you just not use it?

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#18

Post by pfranz » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 2:51 AM UTC

macintux wrote: post #15

danellis wrote: post #12

What about a shared whiteboard, though? That's the one thing I'm missing at the moment. Using one of those with a couple of nice graphics tablets would be great.

I have lamented the lack of a good online whiteboard experience for decades now. I think the real problem is that for a proper whiteboard, we need obscenely large and high-resolution displays. Analog is much better than digital in this particular.

SmoothDraw[1] is what Kahn Academy uses, but it lacks those features you mention. Milton[2] is an open source stroke based application, so you get infinite canvas and infinite zoom. Neither are network-based though and it's tough to beat a physical whiteboard.

[1] http://www.smoothdraw.com/sd

[2] https://github.com/serge-rgb/milton

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#19

Post by notpeter » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 3:19 AM UTC

patrick_haply wrote: post #17

brightball wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's it. That system was fantastic.

Was? Are you saying you don't hold that opinion anymore, or do you just not use it?

Signups have been closed for 2.5 years since they were acquired by Slack.

http://blog.screenhero.com/post/109337923751/screenhero-join...

Re: Tools for Remote Software Development and Pair Programming

#20

Post by oAlbe » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 3:20 AM UTC

patrick_haply wrote: post #17

brightball wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's it. That system was fantastic.

Was? Are you saying you don't hold that opinion anymore, or do you just not use it?

I think he means that since Slack bought them, they closed the registrations and have been "integrating with Slack" for some over a year now I belive.