[LRUG] "Designer code": with Ruby refactoring exercises

[Graham Ashton]

On 7 Jan 2011, at 11:45, Murray Steele wrote:

> If it's not your machine, be willing to learn about your partners environment and don't refuse to work because you don't like their tools or how they've set them up.  It can also help to swap "driver" machines every so-often that way you can both learn about other toolsets.

Absolutely. It really helps if you've got a simple editor to hand, already setup with syntax highlighting, etc.

> You could also not use ping-pong techniques.  If it's not your machine and you're not comfortable in the dev environment, don't drive.

Which reminds me of a top tip.

When you're driving, remember that your pair is almost always reading something on the screen, and it might not be the same thing that you're looking at.

If you've got multiple windows open (code in an editor, tests running in a terminal or a web page in a browser) try and make sure that the windows don't overlap. The chances that they're reading something when you hit Alt-Tab are high, and there's no need to stop their thoughts in their tracks just because you've switched to a different window.

I normally go as far as to arrange the windows on my desktop in a consistent manner when pairing, so that both members of the pair become habituated with which terminal to look in for test output, etc.