Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Show HN: Start a pair programming session over WebRTC by just sharing a link (codecoachapp.com)
131 points by jsin on March 5, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 42 comments



I like how simplistic this is. Btw, I am one of the makers of: https://codepad.remoteinterview.io

We used Firepad[1] (which is based on Firebase) to sync data.

[1] https://github.com/firebase/firepad


I suggest you do not run things as root inside your docker containers. :)


You are correct. Working on it, Thanks!


How else would he do it?


There are instructions in this best practices article: https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/eng-image/dockerfil...

(Search for "as root")


I'm fascinated by the use of random word combinations instead of a random alphanumeric sequence for passing a unique URL.

What was the reasoning behind this decision? On one hand, it sort of acts like a phonetic alphabet if you want to read out the URL over skype. But on the other hand - is OberonNostalgicCeciliaVoltage really that easy to spell if you aren't a native English speaker?


Hello. As other comments mentioned, it is easier to communicate these URLs over the phone. These words were chosen very specifically to be short, phonetically different from one another, easy to understand over the phone, and also recognizable internationally. Here is the list:

http://web.archive.org/web/20090918202746/http://tothink.com...


This always felt like overkill to me.

a 4 character alpha-numeric code is 36^4 (1.6M) which is fine for new websites.

If you run out, add a 5th character which gets you to 60M, and a 6th character gets you 2T.


I forget which site it is off the top of my head but there's a pretty prominent gif sharing site that does it I often get linked to.

I think it's basically just as you say, for English speakers anyway, a bit of an easier way to read out URLs when talking in person or voice chatting. With non-English speakers it doesn't do much, and you're forced to say letter for letter as you would with a lot of other URLs.


One twist on this would be to somehow limit the wordlist to words that have relatively unambiguous pronunciation, and maybe limit those to the 100 000 most commonly used ones.

Of course then you'll have to use more words for a similar number of links.


its gfycat.com


Yes gfycat is what partially inspired us too.


Also, would "TouchingPlayfulEnjoyAspect" be something you want to tell a interview candidate? (First one it generated for me)


Well it would certainly make for a hilarious interview.


I stumbled upon your site a few days back. It's very neat and nicely done, but I had to close it because it treated C and C++ together. I wanted to quickly check how a code will behave in C89 vs C99 (or was it even compliant with C89 standards). Is there any chance your site will differentiate C89, C99 and C++ in near future? Thanks!


Thanks, that is certainly on our list.


Great. Thanks!


Btw a workaround: You can enable the shell (from languages dropdown) and "cat > file.cpp" and compile it yourself with whatever compilers you want. You are also able to "apt-get" any other compilers/packages you need.


That's a little longer route but nice to know it's there!


I'm a huge fan of your site. Shoot me an email at josh.j.singer (at) gmail.com


For pair programming I can highly recommend tmux combined with any video chat (Skype, Hangout, etc.).


What we really need is a protocol so people can use their favourite editor without being forced to choose just one.


For tmux, that opens up pretty much any terminal based editor (vim, emacs, nano) along with all the extensions you might install with it (and the build environment).

But for a protocol, I think what EtherPad (and google wave) had done with cell by cell action is what's needed. If google wave had taken off (and actually implemented their federation concept), I could definitely see people creating plugins to send and receive character operations via a google wave server.


WebRTC is a great tool and I expect to see more examples like this that will drive how we think about collaborative business tools over the next 5 years.


This is awesome! Is this open source? I'd love to learn more about it.


Nicely done. I'm myself toying with webrtc and remote pair programming, so I think this is really cool.

One question: before beginning the session I got a "popup" claiming that the session is encrypted, does it just mean it's https or are you doing any other encryption?


They are referring to the video stream that is encrypted using RTPS (RTP + SSL), as is standard when using WebRTC.


That's right! :)


I'm stuck connecting... :( tried both with my phone and my laptop - both in Chrome Version 49.0.2623.75 m

webrtc works fine, but I'm unable to type anything...


It connected me with the developer but somehow I was not able to type anything. It kept displaying connecting.. I used Chrome.


Thanks for letting me know! Was running this on a small server and didn't expect it to blow up. Bug fixes coming in next week after I finish finals.


The same for me on Chrome and Firefox.


Still the same on both Firefox 44.0.2 and Chrome 49.0.2623.75


Hey, awesome service! I'd be interested in using this at my site (BugRex.com). We're a chat based help line for developers in the need for help. Sharing code is an issue we haven't solved properly yet. Let me know if you want to chat.


Email me at josh.j.singer (at) gmail.com


It is just showing connecting with my own video at the right top corner. I think something is wrong. I am on the latest chrome.

Getting these errors in dev console. Could not open document: [object Object]


Thanks for letting me know! Was running this on a small server and didn't expect it to blow up. Bug fixes coming in next week after I finish finals.


This is amazing! Super hyped to see people building things that solves problems. Way to go.


:)


I like it. Only complaint is it seems to hijack the back button making it hard to get back to this page.


This is awesome. Thank you for sharing!


It's back online!!!




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: