Comments on: Paired Programming’s Benefits

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Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:38:14 +0000

[...] http://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/09/03/paired-programmings-benefits/ : l’intérêt du Peer Programming es bien expliqué dans cet [...]

By: Karmen Blake

Karmen Blake — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:09:20 +0000

@rein
teleport looks very useful. gracias.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:22:12 +0000

@Rein

I hadn’t heard of teleport – it looks like an awesome piece of software.

Thanks for the information on Hashrocket. It’s always nice to see how other people are working and I think it helps spread knowledge about what works and what doesn’t.

By: Rein Henrichs

Rein Henrichs — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:46:48 +0000

Great article. At Hashrocket, we use 30″ Cinema displays with two sets of mice and keyboards. We also use teleport, a Mac preference pane that allows you to move seamlessly from one computer to another as if they were just dual screens. Both of these definitely improve the pair programming experience.

By: Karmen Blake

Karmen Blake — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:50:11 +0000

@mark
The laptop and its mobility is a plus. You can always pick the laptop up and move it to a different room or location to work, if necessary.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:37:22 +0000

@Rob

I hadn’t given much thought to remote pair programming. That’s an interesting idea, and I wonder how it might help/hurt communication.

@Karmen

Certainly a larger screen would be a must – or at least the availability of a larger screen. Is the mobility of a laptop a plus, or not much of a big deal?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:53:11 +0000

Using something like gotomeeting with laptops can provide the ability to do pair programming remotely. I recently discovered it has some really good scribbling-on-the-screen capabilities (though it might be win32 only).

By: Karmen Blake

Karmen Blake — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:51:32 +0000

@Mark – I have a laptop but in addition have a 24 inch secondary display which I think is a must. The laptop alone would be challenging.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:44:34 +0000

@Karmen

Good point about the office constraints. Something you didn’t mention, but that your comment made me think of and that should be asked: do laptops hurt or help pairing?

I haven’t decided on the answer yet.

By: Karmen Blake

Karmen Blake — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:08:35 +0000

Nice and readable. Thanks for the insights. The points you make for paired programming are good. Another reason why teams don’t do it is because their office gives them constraints such as cubicles, small offices, small desks, small displays, etc.