Hacker News Reader

Comment by mrbluecoat | Hacker News Reader

+1 for Extreme Programming. I've been a fan from the beginning when Agile was all the rage and my recommendations for XP were met with blank stares.

View on HN

I'm glad that it works for some people, but I did not like the forced pair programming in XP at all. And I found adherents to XP were even more cult like than Agile teams.

Does XP and pair programming actually require two people to be simultaneously working together at the same time? My understanding is that this includes one person who codes while another person looks at the results and reviews them afterward. The two are still working closely together and exchanging feedback, just at different points in the process in an iterative loop.

My understanding is that original meaning was that pair programming requires the pair work together at the same desk and machine.

With the ability to share screens/IDEs remotely the need to be at the same desk may have shifted, but working together is intrinsic to pair programming I believe.

The original text went into some detail about making the desk work for 2 people, and having screwdrivers available to do so, which for some reason always amused me.

No, the point is that both "driver" and "navigator" (as some pair programming referred to the roles) are looking at the coffee simultaneously, just one has the keyboard at the time.

This is extended to "mob" programming where you have whole team of "navigators" and one person at keyboard.

resist the oxymoron of agile zealot - the first rule is do what works for YOU

Reply on news.ycombinator.com