22 ms·
> for both pilots and surgeons, no one is doing the same job at the same time. Do you think pair programmers are literally bashing the keyboard simultaneously?
by jacques_chester 7y ago
> for both pilots and surgeons, no one is doing the same job at the same time.
Do you think pair programmers are literally bashing the keyboard simultaneously?
Your point, as I read it, wasn't that "only programmers do pair programming". That's as trite as "only surgeons do pair surgery" or "only aviators do pair aviation", because it includes the profession. It's that only programmers doing any kind of assigning two minds to cooperatively navigate one problem space, which is demonstrably false.
- nikofeyn 7y ago> Do you think pair programmers are literally bashing the keyboard simultaneously? that's how the article and other articles define it: two people sitting at the same machine writing code. what is your definition? my point was indeed: what other industry practices "pair <work or implementation>" on the same task? and why would it be the second? we're literally talking about pair programming here, not just cooperative work.
- rabidrat 7y agoOne person is sitting at the machine, the other is sitting beside them. Like how one person is flying the plane, the other is sitting beside them. Pilot/navigator is a common role division. In pair programming, the person at the keyboard is doing the minutiae of the immediate task at hand (the pilot), while the other person is thinking through the next steps or how it fits into the whole (the navigator). They are not actually typing at the same time.