Nebraska for pair programming

Brian Brown rbb at techgame.net
Mon Jun 30 21:14:51 UTC 2003


On Monday 30 June 2003 09:19 am, Lex Spoon wrote:
> Daniel Vainsencher <danielv at netvision.net.il> wrote:
> > I have to try Nebraska some time, though it sounds like it has all the
> > disadvantages of sitting together (one machine, sometimes hard to follow
> > things as they are being done) and of being apart (cant talk, can't tell
> > if partner is looking). The JabbingBrowser would be less highly coupled
> > - more like exchanging code by email, only with short turn around,
> > online chat, and structured data creating endless potential for tool
> > support.
>
> While it's one machine, you do each get a mouse pointer.  And you can
> both type in different terminals.
>

Right, this worked quite well.

> You cannot both develop code due to some silliness in SystemWindow.
> Maybe you can do it in MorphicWrappers.  But anyway, fixing SystemWindow
> to accept keystrokes even when not "active" would be simple.
>
Would the world have to keep track of multiple "focus" points for this to 
work?

> Also, you can talk, via either a telephone or through textual chat as
> you choose.
>

And the point to point chat in the Etoys works fine for 2 people, even without 
using server based chat. 

> Finally, it would be pretty simple to adjust Nebraska so that the shared
> world is large, just like in the original Kansas, so that multiple
> developers can work in different parts of the screen.  I always meant
> Nebraska to be a starting point, but everyone seems to be afraid to do
> anything with it.  There is some decent (IMHO) documentation on the
> Swiki for anyone who wants to do a project with it.
>
>
The only problem we had in trying it was in moving windows around... the 
window outline would get attached to the Server image hand and the client 
would be essentially locked up until the Server hand clicked to drop the 
morph.

I find it quite an amazing piece of work, and we (our company) are going to 
try to use for doing remote support of customer applications and training of 
customers. Having the multiple focus points would be ideal for development.

How hard do you think that would be to do something with?


> Lex

Thank you Lex (and Bob) for all the work you have done on this... there is a 
*lot* there to work with and from!

Brian



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