Slashdot Mirror
Collaborative Software For Pair Programming?
DavidMatuszek writes "I will be teaching Java again this Fall. Students work in pairs, but unfortunately (after the first hour) typically not physically together. I would like to find collaborative software that is (1) dead simple to use, because that's not what the course is about, and (2) free. Google Docs would do, but students will be sharing code — plain text — not RTF or HTML or Word files. Is there such software for plain text?"
If you're willing and able to release the source code, why not encourage them to use a free account on sourceforge or github?
Cancel the pair programming. All that happens is one student in the pair writes all the code. They might swap back and forth, or more likely one will end up doing it all.
Um, he's doesn't appear to be talking about a repository, but rather, software to enable pair-programming, only with the pair not sitting next to each other (or in the same room). Say, some software like SubEthaEdit on MacOS X, where two people can simultaneously edit the same document, along with say, Skype or some other voice/video service where the two people can view/interact with each other.
At least that's what I gathered from reading TFS.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I vote for the central server. And for having it in the hands of the teacher.
That way he can far better check whether one student does all the work while the other is doing the homework for another class for both of them. Yes, it's also a way to share the burden, but not the way it's meant to be. The server could be made tamper proof and if something's suspicious he could always check the versions and see what was done by what student. Even if they're smart enough to hand both logins to one person and that person fakes doing work as his partner, the IP addresses would give it away if they cheated.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.