[koolba]

> While I have never been at a place that did this, I have in my head the idea that the code should be an unfolding collective conversation, kind of like when folks are all collaborating on a shared Google Doc, I see that you are editing this section and I throw in a quick comment “don't forget to add XYZ” and then jump to a different part that I won't be stepping on their toes with.

You just discovered pair programming.

It works astonishingly well. The second pair of eyes not only catches errors and envisions expanded use cases, it also prevents you from shirking off to HN. The biggest problem is you need two people, preferably sitting right next to each other with just one person “driving”.

[williamcotton]

With the right pair it is unbelievable how much productivity can be unleashed. I concur, it's much easier to stay focused on the task at hand with someone actively working on the same thing.

The reason why this didn't catch on is that it's almost like a Mick and Keith sort of relationship. You can't just take any two musicians and throw them together and get the Rolling Stones and the same thing applies to pair programming.

Take a look at Bell Labs during the birth of UNIX for an entire SWARM of interdependent engineers. There's more than just a small element of good fortune! It seems those people were almost meant for one another.

[MaxBarraclough]

> You can't just take any two musicians and throw them together and get the Rolling Stones and the same thing applies to pair programming.

I don't see that effective teamwork should necessarily depend on compatible personalities. I think the better comparison would be to surgery teams, or pilot crews, rather than art.

[samus]

It works well if the tasks are short and well-described. Long, complicated tasks descend into odysseys where one person zones out or gets completely lost as the other person just ends up treating them as a clumsy proxy for the IDE. Furthermore, it rarely works online.

[Zababa]

That is my experience as well. Another case where the "clumsy proxy" issue happens is when I help a frontend dev debug something with the backend, especially online. Do collaborative IDEs exist? How usable are they? A collaborative terminal might be useful too (for when I want to run a few commands quickly to check something on my colleague's computer). Thinking about what I just wrote, maybe I could ssh into their machine?

[samus]

People doubtlessly do it. I sometimes do it when I tutor somebody on a server we both access via SSH. If you use such a server as a jump server, you can setup SSH tunnels to get all the way to another desktop.

I think it would be wonderful to install a remote IDE with workspace on a remote server. Or to VNC/RDP into one.