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Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

tuple.app

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Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#91

Post by armadsen »

I've been using Tuple for the past year and a half or so, IIRC. It's just a really well done Mac app. One of those tools that "just works", is thoughtfully designed, and mostly just stays out of the way and does its job without doing anything annoying.

We don't pair program as a regular thing, but we have junior engineers on our team, and often when they need help, or we're working through some bit of architecture, etc. I'll pair with them. Tuple is the best tool I've found for doing that (remotely). I'm not teaching full time any more, but if I were, I'd absolutely be using Tuple to do remote 1:1 sessions for that as well.

Finally, I've interacted with Ben, the CEO of Tuple, and came away with a great impression of him and what he's trying to do.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#92

Post by phaedryx »

macintux wrote: post #62
etothepii wrote: post #32

Why would I use this over VSCode liveshare? Genuinely asking, why would I want to run video streaming if I can just send small amount of text deltas.

Haven't seen either Tuple or your solution, but I assume at the very least Tuple wins out if the two programmers aren't using the same editor. And if all you're sharing is deltas, how do you discuss existing code interactively? Can you also share text selections and/or mouse movements?

Live Share lets you see which files your pair is looking at and what they have selected. You can also share a terminal session if you'd like. At work we mostly do Live Share + a Slack Huddle for audio. I think it works pretty well.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#93

Post by armadsen »

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…

There are plenty of programmers that don't/can't use VS Code, for one. I'm an iOS and Mac developer, so VS Code is of little use. I'm in Xcode all day. Tuple makes it so I can pair with Xcode, but also see/use the iOS simulator over the pairing connection.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#94

Post by armadsen »

jshier wrote: post #8
stephenpassero wrote: post #5

Also see Pop (pop.com). I’ve used it extensively in the past, and have loved it. It’s currently free, works very well, and has a very responsive team.

Yes, it works well, but the only reason we used it instead of Tuple was that it's free right now. Tuple's pricing is rather absurd ($25/user/mo.) unless your org pairs so often you can justify it on the basis of 40 hour/week use. Pop's free tier lets us pop on actual controlled sharing when simple screen sharing isn't enough.

Anecdotally, I suggested Tuple to my boss (also co-founder of the very small company I work for) when I discovered it, and it took him all of 2 or 3 minutes to learn about it, decide the money was worth it, and sign up for a team account for all the engineers at our company. We've used it regularly in the year+ since. Whether or not $25/user/month is expensive is pretty situational.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#97

Post by belfalas »

jck wrote: post #84
stickfigure wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell you how Pivotal solves this problem (or used to; my time was years ago): Standardize the configuration. If some special tool is making you more productive, share it with the team and get everyone on board. Don't try to be a special snowflake. IMO this is the right way to do pair programming. It tends to bring everyone up to speed with the latest tools, and it keeps eccentrics out of the weeds. It's not to…

Everyone at your organization uses the same text editor and/or IDE?

Pivotal was fairly standardized on Jetbrains tools and VSCode, so yes. Many teams also used a combination of vim and tmux.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#98

Post by belfalas »

toastal wrote: post #87
stickfigure wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell you how Pivotal solves this problem (or used to; my time was years ago): Standardize the configuration. If some special tool is making you more productive, share it with the team and get everyone on board. Don't try to be a special snowflake. IMO this is the right way to do pair programming. It tends to bring everyone up to speed with the latest tools, and it keeps eccentrics out of the weeds. It's not to…

Cater to your own needs. "Special snowflakes" would include disabled folk that need special setups. If you need a special setup to avoid RSI or to be more productive, do it.

Folks with disabilities would not be considered in the snowflake category. If a team member needs a certain setup then you have to support them, of course.

Snowflake behavior is being the person who just can't use the terminal if it isn't "set -o vi" keys. Or insisting that Caps Lock be mapped to Ctrl/Esc/etc.

Re: Tuple: Pair Programming Tool for macOS

#100

Post by igeligel_dev »

Using it at my current company and it’s great. Especially the little things like the ship it reaction! Super hilarious when I saw it for the first time. Thanks for that.

Some constructive feedback: could not get my webcam (canon eos utility) working. But tbh nothing big because we never use Webcams.

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