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Defending the Python lanuage...

Steve Holden sholden at holdenweb.com
Thu Feb 7 17:36:59 EST 2002 
"Michael Chermside" <mcherm at destiny.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.1013116393.10397.python-list at python.org...
> >> Really? What an unusual idea - I didn't realise we had such a surplus
of
> >> programmers to advocate something like this :-)
> >
> > This is a little more "extreme" than I was referring to as well.  The
idea
> > of two programmers sitting at the same computer doesn't really go over
well
> > with me... I was referring having two programmers sit side-by-side at
> > separate computers, working on different parts of the same program
versus
> > having one programmer work in isolation.  Indeed, I don't know many
> > programmers with the patience to sit and watch someone else type ;)
>
>
> Ermmm.... No.
>
> When XP or Agile Programming advocates talk about "pair programming"
> they really DO mean one keyboard, two programmers.
>
> Peter Milliken writes that he didn't know we had such a surplus of
> programmers -- this is a common misconception. Suppose that, working on
> your own, you get X amount of coding done in a day. If we could spare a
> second programmer to stand there and just help you out -- someone to
> bounce ideas off of, to watch for typos, to suggest things that you had
> forgotten -- then you'd get MORE done... say X * k.
>
[how much more productive is it?]
>
> As for Cliff Wells' contention that he doesn't know many programmers who
> would want to do this, I have to differ. There are clearly some
> programmers who absolutely hate working in pairs, but there are also
> many others who LOVE it.
>
> Now I just wish I could convince my company to consider doing pair
> programming. Because for *ME* personally, k is around 3 or 4.
>
Well, you could resign twice and let them notice the huge productivity loss
...

As a "singleton" (I tend to work as a one-man team) what I'm looking for is
the NetMeeting of the pair programming world. So I can pair-program with a
colleague on the net rather than make mistakes on my own. I really enjoy
pair programming, but get to indulge in it far too rarely.

Although there are sometimes advantages in immediate productivity, even a
modest decline in output is rapidly compensated by reductions in program
defects for XP, particularly since addressing them later is hugely more
expensive. I'm *very* interested in anything that reduces defect rates

regards
 Steve
--
Consulting, training, speaking: http://www.holdenweb.com/
Author, Python Web Programming: http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/

"This is Python.  We don't care much about theory, except where it
intersects with useful practice."  Aahz Maruch on c.l.py
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