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For what it's worth, other major code editors Jetbrains and VS Code also offer real-time collaboration built in. For Jetbrains, it's a paid feature. For VS Code
by jitl 2y ago
For what it's worth, other major code editors Jetbrains and VS Code also offer real-time collaboration built in. For Jetbrains, it's a paid feature. For VS Code, it's free.
I love the VS Code implementation (haven't reviewed the other two). If I'm pairing with someone remotely, I don't have any issue having them download VS Code. We provide a config in our project repo for VS Code, so it's really quick for people to get set up enough to join the real-time collab session with me. `brew install visual-studio-code` and then `code .` in our repo, plus OAuth with Github to authenticate the collaboration feature.
I think it really is great. Makes pairing much easier, and really speeds up drugery like refactoring 500 cases where it doesn't quite make sense to do a codemod. It's not quite like the upgrade from Word97.exe to Google Docs since we have git, but it feels similarly amazing to "just" to be talking about some code, click the other user's icon to jump right to their cursor and help them get unstuck.
I personally bounce between VS Code, Xcode, and nvim+tmux, and I don't have a problem with keeping a "lowest common denominator" editor around for collaboration or pairing. I also keep a regular keyboard at my desk so I don't force people to type on my Glove80/Kinesis Advantage.
- VoxPelli 2y agoI do believe one can join collab sessions from https://vscode.dev/ https://vscode.dev/ as well? So no need to install anything, it runs well and officially in the browser And for those with installed VSCode they need to add the Live Share extension to get this functionality, it’s not built in from the start, but offered through that official extension? https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-vsliveshare.vsliveshare https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-vsliv...
- tjoff 2y agoAnd you need to login using a Microsoft-account. Even if both computers are on the same LAN. That part leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. Also debugging in a collaborative session has been broken for years now for us.
- notpushkin 2y agoAnd it is proprietary, and only works with official VS Code builds (i.e. not VSCodium). https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items/MS-vsliveshare.vsliveshare/license https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items/MS-vsliveshare.vs...
- gpm 2y agoMy experience with the VS Code implementation has been constant desyncs between the editor state on the different users computers. At least some of them I could reliably reproduce by using language server commands. The main reason I'm excited for zed is for an editor that built this in from the beginnings and has the same feature with less bugs.
- myaccountonhn 2y agoAs someone who hates Microsoft, I just wish that other colleagues wouldn’t force me to use their editor to collaborate. I wish there was more effort to build something editor agnostic.
- surajrmal 2y agoYou could use vnc and allow the remote user control. This is how I used to do IT help for relatives in the early 2000s. It's certainly far less secure, but I'm not sure what you're asking for will ever happen.