

Mirrored display face-to-face pair programming setup - joshsusser
http://pivotallabs.com/users/jsusser/blog/articles/1505-pairing-tete-a-tete

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wccrawford
I like it.

For a while, we had a couple people who really liked pair programming at work.
Our desks really, really weren't fit for that. They went through a lot of
things and finally settled on 1 person having the work computer, and the
second remoting into it. They would sit at their own desks, which were close
enough to talk, if loudly.

Other than a few latency issues, it seemed to work pretty well for them.

This setup, though, would have been MUCH preferred.

As for the cost of the second monitor... Most non-pair places buy 2 computers
AND 2 monitors... Our stations at work even have 2 monitors per computer, with
only 1 developer at it.

I think the cost of the second monitor is a very small price to pay for
efficiency.

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whackedspinach
I'm not sure I understand the concept of pair programming. It seems to me that
the keyboard clashes, while able to be avoided, would be rather annoying and
be less efficient. I could see collaborative editors working out much
better.What does the second programmer do while the first one is writing code

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aaronblohowiak
You write code together. Typing is a minor part of creating software.

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shin_lao
Am I the only one here who hates the very idea of pair programming?

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rbanffy
This may actually be a symptom of hating your co-workers.

There are people I like to pair with and people I am not as productive when
paired with.

Try to pair with someone you like.

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shin_lao
I prefer to discuss the design with co-workers and then work on my own. I'm
more efficient that way.

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rbanffy
Don't measure only your productivity - measure the team. When you pair with
someone with a different skill-set, some learning also happens.

A good analogy is with sports. In a good team, every player knows what the
other is doing, not because they can observe each other, but because they know
each other so well they can predict what will happen in the field.

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sgt
I've never tried pair programming, and I'm not convinced it would be a good
idea for most programmers out there. I like to be able to think alone, and sit
and reflect upon things, then go back into discussion with my colleagues
either via "real life conversation" or via GTalk or e-mail.

I'd be willing to check it out for the sake of not rejecting it without cause.
However, finding a co-programmer that is a correct match seems to be the
biggest challenge.

PS It's good to see that your workers also have decent chairs, and not just
gymballs. :-)

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wesgarrison
Seems like the tables don't need to be so deep, which would help use less
space. Maybe not, though,

I do something similar when I'm pairing, but we just sit on opposite sides of
a conference room table. The offset is key so you're not constantly leaning
over to see the other person.

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oliverjesse
Hey Josh, what if I want to turn my head to the right to look at my pair? One
of the things I need ergonomically is to even out the twists in my spine.
Seems at a place like Pivotal you might want to encourage people to do the
same.

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joshsusser
Switching sides is good when you're sitting side-by-side. But I haven't
noticed that there's enough neck twisting in the tete-a-tete configuration for
that to be an issue.

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TamDenholm
Has anyone ever tried pair programming with a collaborative editor? EG: gobby.

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wyclif
Good question. In general, what happens to this setup when two programmers use
different editors, say vim/Emacs/TextMate?

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pchristensen
It sucks. I just started a new job with lots of pair programming and all vim
users. Struggle.

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rbanffy
Quit complaining. You could have ended inside a Visual Studio shop...

See? I could be much worse.

