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Show HN: PairForce – Collaborative Cloud IDE and Terminal Powered by Docker

24 points by alexdme 10y ago

alexdme 10y ago
PairForce was initially created because I wanted to give test driven development interviews for remote candidates, but I quickly started using my prototype for mentoring junior engineers and pair programming. I was frustrated with existing tools because they were either slow (screenshare), restrictive (all users had to have accounts), or limited (no terminal). I hope you find it as useful as I have. As a thank you for trying out Pairforce, get 6 months free with promocode “hackernews”.
CritiqalWidget 10y ago
Took less than a minute to set up a Go collaboration with my pal in Amsterdam. Nice free trial! I'll keep it. Now maybe I can build something interesting.
handler 10y ago
nice, i'll use this with my significant other to help debug stuff while we're both at work. way better than a screenshare.
mrcoles 10y ago
What does the IDE look like? Or do I have access to a terminal where I can use something like emacs or vim?
- alexdme 10y ago
  The IDE is powered by ACE editor, but you have a terminal that is 100% capable of running emacs / vim, but since the terminals are shared you can't have multiple cursors like you can in the editor. But you can also enable vim mode from the editor settings if that's your jam.
  - icecube 10y ago
    I would like to see screenshots and a list of supported languages/frameworks. Also, the homepage says "Run it, commit it, and move on". Do you have native support for git? (And if you do, is it just github, or do you support gitlab, bitbucket, etc?)
    - alexdme 10y ago
      The containers are powered by docker, and all of our pre-built docker images come with git pre-installed. You have root on the machines so you can use a package manager to install any packages you feel are missing (the pre-built docker images are ubuntu so you could run `sudo apt-get install subversion` for instance). Since we're not opinionated you should be able to pull/push from any git server.
willtachau 10y ago
looks like this could be great for interviews
will_gottschalk 10y ago
How much work would I have to do to set up session to take users through a tutorial of one of my open source projects?
- alexdme 10y ago
  After logging in you should be able to spin up a session in less than a second by clicking "quickstart". After that, you can share the URL with anyone you want to have join the session and they can watch and collaborate in your session without needing to create an account.
qmaxquique 10y ago
Have you tried this? https://www.terminal.com/webterminal https://www.terminal.com/webterminal
dhakiki 10y ago
great tool and awesome UI. can't wait to use this when i mentor.

24 points by alexdme 10y ago

PairForce was initially created because I wanted to give test driven development interviews for remote candidates, but I quickly started using my prototype for mentoring junior engineers and pair programming. I was frustrated with existing tools because they were either slow (screenshare), restrictive (all users had to have accounts), or limited (no terminal). I hope you find it as useful as I have. As a thank you for trying out Pairforce, get 6 months free with promocode “hackernews”.

CritiqalWidget 10y ago

Took less than a minute to set up a Go collaboration with my pal in Amsterdam. Nice free trial! I'll keep it. Now maybe I can build something interesting.

handler 10y ago

nice, i'll use this with my significant other to help debug stuff while we're both at work. way better than a screenshare.

mrcoles 10y ago

What does the IDE look like? Or do I have access to a terminal where I can use something like emacs or vim?

alexdme 10y ago
The IDE is powered by ACE editor, but you have a terminal that is 100% capable of running emacs / vim, but since the terminals are shared you can't have multiple cursors like you can in the editor. But you can also enable vim mode from the editor settings if that's your jam.
- icecube 10y ago
  I would like to see screenshots and a list of supported languages/frameworks. Also, the homepage says "Run it, commit it, and move on". Do you have native support for git? (And if you do, is it just github, or do you support gitlab, bitbucket, etc?)
  - alexdme 10y ago
    The containers are powered by docker, and all of our pre-built docker images come with git pre-installed. You have root on the machines so you can use a package manager to install any packages you feel are missing (the pre-built docker images are ubuntu so you could run `sudo apt-get install subversion` for instance). Since we're not opinionated you should be able to pull/push from any git server.

willtachau 10y ago

looks like this could be great for interviews

will_gottschalk 10y ago

How much work would I have to do to set up session to take users through a tutorial of one of my open source projects?

alexdme 10y ago
After logging in you should be able to spin up a session in less than a second by clicking "quickstart". After that, you can share the URL with anyone you want to have join the session and they can watch and collaborate in your session without needing to create an account.

qmaxquique 10y ago

Have you tried this? https://www.terminal.com/webterminal https://www.terminal.com/webterminal

dhakiki 10y ago

great tool and awesome UI. can't wait to use this when i mentor.