Remote/Pair-Programming in-the-cloud

[DL Neil]

On 3/08/19 11:50 AM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> appear.in can also screen share along with its video conferencing, and I 
> imagine Zoom might do so also. But a screen share is "read only" for the 
> other party. You could both screen share of course, but it doesn't solve 
> the keep-the-code-in-sync issue.


Thanks Cameron.

TBH I fear that the keep-the-code-in-sync issue is a bit of a 'red 
herring'. Do your pair-programming exercises ever involve both 
developing the same code-file at the same time?


A simple screen-share solution has to be the MVP:
- I can see the code someone wants to show/is requesting help for
- we can talk through the question
- but I can't 'take control', eg would have to ask the other person to 
scroll in order to show a piece of code 'somewhere else'.

Perhaps this is good discipline?


I am hoping we can 'do better'.

One of the PythonAnywhere principals has come back to me (I first used 
this service at least a decade ago, starting when I met Harry (the 
testing goat) Roberts at a London PUG meeting - although I'm not sure 
whether the evening's topic was PA and 'testing' was mentioned, or 
perhaps the other way around! You know how these meetings go - and the 
serendipitous benefits that can be realised, although not 
designed/deliberate).

PA's "education" services do not appear to have progressed very far 
(since), but at least they are happy for me to use the scheme. Yay!

The other observation is that Py3.7 *IS* now available (contrary to 
previous msg).

In PA, if I open a "console", it can be shared with all my (PA-defined) 
"students" as r/o. Better, is that anyone who cares to ask for help 
(registered as one of my students) can ask me to 'look over their 
shoulder'. As well as navigating the other person's source-files, I 
think I could initiate a test, or quick edit, in that mode.

(if you'd like to give-it-a-whirl/have-a-go, they offer free accounts 
(with modest but quite functional facilities) and the registration 
process is not onerous - if we* can arrange an RDV, I'll be happy to try 
working as a pair...)

* by "we" I mean any list-member, not just Cameron (whose suggestion 
heads this post)


- I haven't had a chance to start evaluating the two apparently 'larger' 
systems, mentioned yesterday...


So, the ambition for this next PUG coding-night, is to find something 
that offers more than the screen-share 'MVP', is well-rounded, and easy 
to learn/install/use on a casual basis. My hope, is that 'something' 
will offer services we might not have thought relevant/possible/useful, 
at first...
(we can but dream)
-- 
Regards =dn