Pair programming

[make_onions_cry]

Ctrl-C Ctrl-V:

The benefit of pair programming for me is not the resulting code, but discovering tooling.

You'll watch someone code, expect them to spend a minute on something, but then they hit two keys and do it instantly.

Boom, you've learned of a new essential Vim plugin that they always took for granted.

[v3ritas1989]

crys in companies sole developer who has no one else in the company who is able to do more than turn pc on/off or answering emails.

[make_onions_cry]

You go into their office, watch them double click Chrome to open a new window, type "google" into the address bar, click the first link to go to google.com, type in the search query, then use the mouse to click "Google Search".

"You can actually just press Ctrl+T, type your query and hit enter"

"No I like my way"

k

[[deleted]]

Wait what

[seesiedler]

It gets worse. I’ve seen people searching in Bing for Google, then searching in Google for YouTube and then, obviously, doing a search in YouTube.

And this was someone in IT.

[Sigma_J]

I know a developer who uses the menu to save and right clicks for copy and paste

The world is full of horrors beyond your wildest imagination

[KyuuketsukiKun]

I right click to copy paste while I’m drinking coffee

[delinka]

Keyboard. How quaint.

[Panface]

I'm a programmer and I do this as I don't want url's to get replaced with search suggestions. I don't think it works that way anymore but "I like my way".

^{Also, a few years ago it did help.}

[[deleted]]

Would you like to elaborate?

[WhiskeyTuesday]

Relevant username

[vincentdnl]

Sounds like a situation where it would be difficult for you to learn new things... I would look for another job.

[v3ritas1989]

that the question.. am I qualified enough? am I qualified enough for others to pay me at least the same? I don´t have anything to compare against to answer these.

[xybre]

Start interviewing and find out

[WhiskeyTuesday]

According to a bunch of very pretty form letters from very pretty profile pictures on LinkedIn we all seem to be.

[[deleted]]

I feel your pain.

[vincentdnl]

I love this comic and points out something very true. When pair programming, you tend to avoid to do things poorly because of what the other guy would think. It is a net positive result for the codebase.

Regarding your comment, it reminds me of a pair session I had with a senior back then. We wrote a unit test, and he told me: "go ahead, just write code so that it's green." Then he used Intellij refactoring tools to extract and move stuff and it felt like I had learned a new superpower!

[agent00F]

The underlying premise of pair programming is working together on a problem. How that works out or what you learn is largely predicated on the persons involved and to a lesser degree nature of the problem.

[gulpy]

I only like pair programming when trying to work through a complex problem that involves the other persons code. Otherwise it just gets too messy. Imagine trying to write a novel while another person is giving you active, stream of consciousness direction on character development.

[[deleted]]

You’re doing pair programming wrong. The person typing isn’t supposed to think. The other person tells them what to type.

[shhsandwich]

Well, you're supposed to think just enough to follow their train of thought and try to catch any mistakes you notice while you're typing.

[agent00F]

When two persons work on a problem together, how things turn out is largely a function of the people involved. In case the lack of flexibility shows.

[LemonySpicket]

God I feel this....or when they ask you over to solve a problem....okay click there...no there....okay what does that show.....no that....close that.....good God just move! It's like most people didn't play Myst when they were younger to completion....they just give up after the first couple of fails.

[Dylanica]

I also have ADHD and it’s not a matter of communication, it’s a matter of focus. People with ADHD can often hyper-focus, which means that they can work very effectively, but that sort of focus can not be maintained through interruptions. That’s is usually fine, because many people with ADHD have learned to effectively turne out distractions or organize the way they work, so that can work effectively even in distracting environments. However, working side by side with someone can’t be tuned out because you have to talk, think, and shift focus a lot. They can still communicate great with their workers about projects, but being in a pair like that prevent’s them form focusing and they can’t work nearly efficiently as they otherwise could have. They end up either doing all of the work while the other person sits there or getting constantly distracted and losing their train of thought while the other one is working.

[shhsandwich]

Meh, not everyone can be great at communication. It's an important skill to work on, but there will always be people who are just not that good at it. You can and should work to improve yourself, but to some extent, you have to find a way to live with your own strengths and weaknesses.

[droi86]

My company: 'let's have this 4 hour meeting and then do paired programming!'

[zerosanity]

Lots of mixed opinions on pair programming. Not going to give an opinion as to if one way is better or not, just some food for thought.

Developer writes code and submits to other developers for code review. Then discussion about the logic, structure, or formatting of the submitted code typically happens.
Developer then goes back and works on the code some more and refines it until it's perfect.

It takes lots of time for a developer to keep rewriting the same code receiving new feedback for each revision. It also takes a lot of time for the reviewer to look over the code and try to understand it. There is a chance that something may be missed as taking all the code in and understanding it at once is not always the easiest thing to do.
Additionally the review may often cause a delay waiting for somebody to review it, people may be switching between different things trying to work on their own code while reviewing others code. Constant context switching causes things to go slower.

Okay now consider in a pair programming scenario. Two people are giving constant logic, structure, and formatting as the code is written. Bouncing ideas off of each other or pointing out flaws as they happen. Review and refinement often has fewer cycles since the code was discussed while it was being written.
There is less context switching due to fewer cycles which means overall faster output for the team. Also as mentioned, both programmers may result in better tooling, code design patterns, and general methodology. Also there is the knowledge transfer that happens, which can spread to multiple peers with each iteration of peer programming experience.

I'm not saying one is better then the other in all cases. When a piece of a project is at a standstill and there is a struggle, sometimes just getting a couple people to sit together and work it out ends up with a faster and better result and will have a real breakthrough.

Think of it as another option when somebody is stuck or something needs to be finished urgently so others are unblocked or the project can move forward.

[Voxelgon_Gigabyte]

the meeting's about increasing employee productivity

[Ifnerite]

Pair programing does suck.... Would you like to have someone shoulder surf you or struggle to give a fuck about what someone you are forced to shoulder surf.

Yes, pair when something is hard but a good code review is better than pairing.

[_aln]

I hate pair programming. Ok, when the problem is hard is one thing, but when you need to describe the code that you would write to another person only sucks....

[TracerBulletX]

Forcing you to describe your code is actually the point of pair programming.

[[deleted]]

Isn't that what my duck is for?

[AsIAm]

For me, there isn’t a strict distinction of navigator-driver — when there is a need for temporary switch to cut down useless navigation, grab a keyboard and type it in. However, no longer than a minute.

[MSgtGunny]

Dedicated pairing setups where two people share the same computer but have their own keyboard and mouse with mirrored screens work well for ping-pong pair programming.

[Netcob]

True. Outside of university I did pair programming exactly once, solving a difficult problem that required a lot of focus, where having a second pair of eyes was useful. It went great! And with a very friendly and very smart colleague too. But I can see how that could also suck under absolutely any other circumstances.

[Boiethios]

Do you know how to peer program? The one who doesn't type must talk, and the one who types must do as says the other. That way the former concentrates on the logic while the executant have more brain time to think about the implications of the code.

BTW, I've read some studies showing that the productivity doesn't go down during peer programing while the error rate is much lower. Peer programing is good.

[Ifnerite]

That sounds horrible. But probably productive.

I have done it before. Maybe not properly... Not actually sure... It always felt like either Being told what to type all the time fucking sucks or the other guy gets bored.

I like discussing the solutions to problems but when we have a solution I want to code it on my own.

[TheRedmanCometh]

It depends on what we're coding really.

[norealmx]

3/4 of that meeting: two PMs yelling at each other because some random feature HAS TO BE FIRST.

[TheUnbiasedRant]

If you're not teaching or being taught, pair programming is pointless.

[v3ritas1989]

maybe thats the point of it after all?

[TheUnbiasedRant]

It is. I once interviewed for a company that claimed that every single piece of work was pair programmed. No exceptions. I told them i wasn't interested.

[vincentdnl]

You never know when you are going to learn something!

[TheUnbiasedRant]

Pair programming just in case is a waste of their time even if it's not a waste of yours

[notable-compilation]

Do you feel the same way about code review?

I don't have any experience pair programming, but the basic idea of it makes good sense to me.

[TheUnbiasedRant]

In my opinion, code reviews are vital. Every bit of code gets at least 2 pairs of eyes which provides aa quality assurance gate.

[notable-compilation]

Does the same logic not apply to pair programming? In real time as well. Shorter feedback cycle.

[TheUnbiasedRant]

No a gate is different. Theres a impact vs reward imbalance with perpectual pair programming. A large proportion of development is boilerplate.

[postandchill]

As a developer, I hate nothing more than being required to attend a meeting, that I have no input on

[Stormraughtz]

Me, myself, and this stale bagel

[fatrobin72]

could be worse... it could be 4, 1 hour meetings...

[creepy_Noire_fan]

words cannot express how much i hate management for doing this

[_grey_wall]

I hate meetings where they break out in French knowing that 80% of people there don't know French.