Most programmers are aware that collaboration is necessary for the best results—and pair programming is a popular method for achieving effective collaboration, as you probably already know.
It’s not that complicated to get your employees to work together when they’re in the same office as other developers—roll up to another desk, discuss issues, and code on the same screen.
Codeanywhere
Codeanywhere is a cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE) that you can use directly from your browser.
You can code in real-time with an unlimited number of other developers.
While you’re all coding together, you can check who’s working on what at any time—simply click on the collaborator’s icon, and you’ll see the line they’re modifying.
Furthermore, you can track revisions and easily create and share links between collaborators.
Codeanywhere boasts a robust online code editor that supports all major programming languages and some handy features like auto-complete and an opinionated code formatter to make coding faster and simpler.
CodeSandbox Live
CodeSandbox is a tool for creating coding sandboxes, and with its Live feature, it’s turned into a helpful tool for remote pair programming.
A sandbox for writing code is a convenient and fast way to set up a coding environment.
Its main strength is its simplicity—you can use a template or start from GitHub, and a browser is all you need.
It supports collaboration in real-time or asynchronously, and every change updates live, so it’s easy to keep track of group work.
Sharing is straightforward—clicking on the Live button, you get an URL for sharing with your collaborators.
CodeSanbox Live has two modes. Open Mode allows everyone to edit, and Classroom Mode enables you to choose who can edit.
That can be very useful in pair programming, especially when you want a senior developer to have more control over the session.
GitLive
If you want to expand your IDEs to do pair programming in them, GitLive might be just the tool for you.
You can turn your IDEs into collaborative spaces whether you write code in VS Code, Android Studio, IntelliJ Idea, GitHub, GitLab, or other environments GitLive supports.
Furthermore, your developers don’t need to use the same IDEs—GitLive supports simultaneous coding in, for example, VS Code and any of JetBrains IDEs.
CodeTogether
CodeTogether is a versatile collaborative coding tool that will likely cover most of your pair programming needs with its features.
It supports a wide variety of IDEs, including those based on Eclipse, IntelliJ and JetBrains, and VS Code.
That’s very convenient because your developers don’t need to worry about compatibility issues. Everyone can work in their preferred environment.
Developers can even join a session from a browser without any installations or downloads—they just need a link to enter.
It has a useful feature for pair programming, Teams, where you can start your team, and everyone in it can join directly, without the need to send and receive URLs for every session.
CodePen
The creators of CodePen call it a “social development environment” because of its focus on building a community of developers.
In its essence, CodePen is a tool that allows developers to write code in their browsers. It’s geared more towards front-end developers and suited for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The “Pen” in “CodePen” refers to Pens, spaces for writing code that give you three panels for the programming languages we mentioned—HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
There are also Projects which are broader and more powerful.
Pair programming features come into play if you have a PRO feature of CodePen.
With that, multiple people can edit in one Pen in real-time.
Motepair by Atom
Atom is a well-known free and open-source desktop text and code editor, so there’s a good chance that your developers are familiar with it.
Motepair is here to accommodate remote pair programming needs for those who use Atom.
It’s a free package that enables your developers to collaborate on code in the familiar Atom environment.
In essence, Motepair ties up two or more Atom editors so that every action in one editor repeats in others.
Motepair uses GitHub’s editor for remote pair programming, another collaboration tool that most developers know inside out.
It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, so versatility in that area is a plus.
It all comes down to your team’s preference for Atom editor. If your developers like to work in it, Motepair could be the tool that fulfills their remote pair programming needs.
Teletype for Atom
Continuing in the theme of Atom packages, Teletype is another one that allows developers to collaborate on code in real-time.
Like Motepair, it’s free. However, it offers more elaborate features for pair programming.
It’s based on the concept of portals, real-time sharing workspaces. A host can open a portal that becomes their active shared workspace.
If the host switches between tasks, guests follow them automatically.
Teletype has no centralized server like most other tools. Developers who collaborate share code directly with the peer-to-peer service.
Furthermore, all communication and sharing between collaborators are encrypted.
Teletype can be a good solution for teams used to working in Atom. It adds a generous layer of features for remote pair programming.
Remote Collab for SublimeText
If your team doesn’t prefer Atom, they might use SublimeText as their text and code editor.
If that’s the case, Remote Collab for SublimeText can provide them with remote pair programming functionality.
Remote Collab is an open-source plugin for SublimeText that has one purpose—to allow multiple developers to work together on code.
It’s a very basic way to pair up your developers since the plugin doesn’t offer many features that some other more robust tools do.
However, it offers enough for productive pair programming sessions. A host can open a session and invite other developers by giving them the IP address.
When guests enter the host’s IP address, collaborating can begin.
Remote Collab is primarily for teams that don’t want to leave SublimeText and only want to add remote pair programming features to it, and for what it is, it can be a solution worth considering.
Conclusion
Whether you like pair programming or not, it can be very beneficial for collaboration.
That’s especially true if you have a remote team of developers. It’s challenging to bring them together and form a close-knit team, and pair programming can be a good way to do so.
Sure, there’s nothing wrong with combining screen-sharing apps with Zoom, Slack, and a few more tools.
