Just Another Teaching of Software Engineering (2006-07)

This website archives the teaching and learning of a Software Engineering course. It supports teaching and learning during the course of study (September 2006 to May 2007). After the course, it is an archive for reference and sharing.

Tutorial#03 Pair Programming

You experience an Extreme Programming practice called Pair Programming.

What is Pair Programming?

Two programmers working side-by-side, collaborating on the same design, algorithm, code or test. One programmer, the driver, has control of the keyboard/mouse and actively implements the program. The other programmer, the observer, continuously observes the work of the driver to identify tactical (syntactic, spelling, etc.) defects and also thinks strategically about the direction of the work. On demand, the two programmers can brainstorm any challenging problem. Because the two programmers periodically switch roles, they work together as equals to develop software.

(Extracted from pairprogramming.com)

Some experienced programmers commented working in pairs is “more than twice as fast”. Some qualitative evidence suggests pair programming leads to better design, simpler code, and easier-to-extend code. Is pair programming really more effective than solo programming?

In this laboratory session, you have a chance to try pair programming. I give out a problem and explain the details. You then form a pair programmers to solve the problem and code the solution.

Enjoy yourself and happy pair programming!

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3 Comments

  1. Comment by Steven Choy on October 4, 2006 9:20 am

    Group 2 students did a very good job in the programming contest. Three pairs of programmers solved the coding problem with the faster methods, while another three pairs solved it successfully, although the coding techniques were not very good.

  2. Comment by Steven Choy on October 4, 2006 11:55 am

    Among group 3 students, three pairs of programmers successfully solved the coding problem. The ways they solved the problem was interesting. One program source contained less than 10 lines of program statements.

  3. Comment by Steven Choy on October 4, 2006 5:45 pm

    Group 1 students did an excellent job in the programming contest. Eight pairs of programmers solved the problem successfully. One pair completed the task in 10 minutes. The other three pairs finished less than 40 minutes. I was impressed by some of you. Great Job!

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