[ale] [OT] Pair programming vs. telecommuting (was: Filesystem Architect)

[Fulton Green]

I told Geoffrey I'd take this offline, but I guess some other ppl have an
interest, so ...

The way I've always imagined pair programming is two programmers sharing
one physical keyboard, typically sitting down at the same workstation. But
it sounds as if some others have been able to make it work from farther
distances. Michael Hirsch is correct that it's been around for awhile, and
it's just now getting into most developers' pysches due to its association
with the XP paradigm. So there goes that part of my argument. :)

BTW, for Geoffrey's question as to the efficiency of two ppl. at the same
kbd., the basic idea of pair pgmg. is the classic "two heads are better
than one". The person pumping away at the keyboard focuses on the immediate
coding task at hand, while the observing half of the pair watches out for
any possible code glitches and also thinks about the ramifications outside
the immediate scope of the code. Plus it makes sure that no one goofs off
(unless, of course, both halves of the pair want to ;-).

Perhaps another question to ask would be if one could pull off the entire XP
paradigm when you have between, say, 9 and 12 developers in disparate
locations all working on the same project. Both my XP experiences have been
in large rooms specifically geared to ensuring all developers can
communicate with each other all at once, with no cubicle dividers or other
walls within the same room.

<plug>If you'd like to find out more about (!Windows) XP, check out
http://XP.ThatAtlantaSite.com/ .</plug>

On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 03:56:17PM -0400, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> Not necessarily.  Pair programming comes down to two programmers
> contributing to the coding process (usually the same section of code) at
> once.  They can be at two separate machines and might in fact prefer to
> be if frequent reference to language docs or devel specs is required. 
> I'd be quite certain that there are ways to accomplish a
> pair-programming operation at a distance.

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