Remote Pair Programming

Congratulations Jason! Jason Garber’s book “Practical Pair Programming” is soon to be published and it is indeed a practical guide to pairing. I had the honor of previewing the book and I’ll gladly recommend it to clients and colleagues. 

Motepair is a Atom editor package, that enables remote pair programming using Github’s editor.  

It binds two or more atom editors, in the way that actions like opening/closing files, switching tabs, selection, mouse moving, insertion and deletions get replied to the others editors.

We’ve done a  integration with Share.js to allow concurrent editing via Operational Transformation, which is the technology behind Google Docs.

I Have Pair Programmed for 27,000 Hours: Ask Me Anything!

I'm happy to help! You have a lot of options here, depending on many factors, such as your internet speed, latency between the host/remote machines, OS, etc. I'm going to assume that you'll have high latency between you and your US pairs. 

For command-line editors like emacs, you might opt for a "man in the middle" using tmux, where you and your pair connect to a shared machine in an Amazon EC2 availability zone between you. You'd both use this middleman machine and share the latency equally. Resources: 

http://pragprog.com/book/jkrp/remote-pairing -- Joe K. writes about this technique

google for "ec2 remote pair programming" 

If you have fast connections, try screen sharing programs like Screen Hero, join.me, etc. The person with the fastest upload speed should host.

There are new generations of Web-based IDEs and "diff-sharing" apps that let you code in your own editor, on you machine, while collaborating with other developers. Check out https://floobits.com and https://www.nitrous.io

People always ask me what I use for screen sharing. My answer: Screen Sharing. As in, "Screen Sharing.app," which is built in to your mac. And guess what:

Screen Sharing.app is the best. It's on your Mac right now and it's free!

I'll take it a step further:

Screen Sharing.app is the best screen sharing application around. You should use it if you can.

"But wait," you say, "I don't have it on my Mac. I've looked in my Applications folder and it doesn't show up in Spotlight search."

You have it! And you're right: not only is it not where you expect it to be, but it doesn't show up in Spotlight.

Where is Screen Sharing.app on my Mac?

It's here: /System/Library/Core Services/Screen Sharing.app

Benefits

Highest quality screen sharing experience

Fastest screen sharing experience

Both host and remote can control the screen

CMD+TAB changes the app on host machine

Based on VNC but waaaaayyyyy faster so Linux and Windows VNC users can connect to

Has observer-only mode if you want that

Clipboard syncing between remote/host

Cons

Requires a direct connection to host machine: VPN, IP Address, etc.

That means firewalls might block it.

Can be slow with slower internet connections

How to Use Screen Sharing.app

There are two ways:

Double-Click It

Go go Macintosh HD => System => Library => Core Services

Double-click on Screen Sharing.app

Enter the URL or IP address of the host machine

GO to it

Finder => Go => Connect To Server

Enter vnc://address.of.host.machine.example.com

Bonus: save the addresses by clicking the + button!

Turn Screen Sharing on on your Mac to Allow Connections

Now that I've convinced you to use Screen Sharing.app to remote pair, you need to allow screen sharing connections to your Mac in order to host:

System Preferences => Sharing

Screen Sharing: check it!

Note: The vnc://x.x.x.x address is the IP address on your local network people can use to connect to your machine. VPN users can likely use this address.

There a few networks and services that help people find pairs: 

#pairwithme: This is a Twitter hashtag people use to find and offer pairing time. Post a remote pairing offer or request for help and hopefully people will reply

http://www.pairprogramwith.me/ -- This is Avid Grimm's site that complements #pairwithme.

http://www.airpair.com/ is a commercial service that matches people with remote pairing needs with experts. If you need hard-to-find or urgent expertise post an offer here.

Check out kobra.io, another player in the crowded field of web-based colloborative IDEs; this one is based on the Ace editor.

From Kobra.IO's website:

Kobra is an online code editor that allows you to collaborate with your team quickly and efficiently. After you connect to your development environment, you can see changes in your files as your team members type them. Kobra also has built in video, voice and text chat so you're never more than a click away from your team.

Check out this excellent presentation on remote pair programming from Frank Rietta and Brandon Dees, who run Rails web development consultancy rietta.com. They presented at the October 2013 meeting of the Atlanta Ruby Users' Group.

Slides available here: https://speakerdeck.com/rietta/why-and-how-we-remote-pair-program

Here were some of my take-aways:

They've managed to form a consultancy around remote pair programming and designed the billing strategy such that clients don't get an advantage by splitting pairs -- nor penalized for adding developers. This negates the "you guys shouldn't pair on this one" conversation.

There's an increasing trend of developer's pairing experience being entirely remote pair programming.

I was surprised to hear that several audience members were also experienced pair programmers.

I was very impressed by their professional A/V and lighting setup. It blows mine away.

From the book's page on Prag Prog:

You’ve heard about pair programming’s benefits: fewer bugs, improved skills, and faster delivery. But what happens when you want to pair with someone in another city, country, or even hemisphere? With the right tools, you won’t have to relocate to refactor. In this book, you’ll learn techniques used by the most productive remote programmers in the industry to pair with anyone on the globe on any kind of project. You’ll use collaborative editors, screen sharing, secure networking, and virtualization to create a remote pairing environment that feels as if your partner is sitting right next to you.

I am very impressed with the level of detail and research in the book. The majority of the book describes the technical nuts-and-bolts of remote pairing in different scenarios, focusing on remote pairing on open source projects; I think he does an extremely good job.

Author Joe Kutner conducted a lengthy interview with me, and I tried to convey my remote pairing experiences as accurately as possible. I also had the privilege of reviewing an advanced copy of the book. I'm flattered to be featured in the excerpt along with Jay Haynes of Big Nerd Ranch.

I'm most encouraged by the book's promotion of pair programming in general. Thank you everyone who has ever paired with me, both remotely and in person. I tried to distill the best of our experiences and patterns in my small contribution to Kutner's book.

Somehow I haven't linked to Pair With Me, @avdi's popular grass-roots, hashtag-based remote pair partner site and movement. Check it out.

Just look at all the #pairwithme hashtags on Twitter!

Check out FriendCode: