Sharing an Eclipse Project with Saros
To create an Eclipse project, select File -> New -> Project from the menu bar, and select General -> Project from the wizard that appears. Name it myproject and accept all the default settings.
Now we’ll see myproject in the Package Explorer on the left side of Eclipse. Right-click this node, select New -> File, and choose the file readme.txt.
Now share this project by right-clicking on it again in the Package Explorer, select Share With, and then select the name of the buddy we added earlier, as shown in Figure 32, Sharing an Eclipse project with a buddy. If you’re working with only one computer, this step won’t be possible.
Figure 32. Sharing an Eclipse project with a buddy
Eclipse will prompt the buddy computer with an invitation to join the session. Once the invitation is accepted, the buddy will select a location to save the new project or synchronize with an existing project if this is not our first time sharing it. That’s an important aspect of Saros because it means that both programmers will experience real-time write speed. There is no lag between pressing a key and seeing the change on our screen.
Because the two users are not sharing the same visual session (that is, each user has control of his own mouse, keyboard, and cursor), they can actually edit a document independently while the changes are synchronized in the background. Saros uses the Jupiter algorithm to resolve conflicts that occur during editing. It’s the same algorithm Google uses in its Google Docs product line.
Once a project is shared, we have many options to choose from. We can grant or restrict read or write access to the buddy on a per-file basis. We can enter Follow Mode, which will follow our buddy’s navigation through the IDE, or we can share our screen. This works out of the box on Windows but requires some setup on other platforms. We’ll also be notified of our buddy’s activity by little yellow, green, and blue dots next to the icons of the files we’re sharing.
Saros is a very robust collaborative editing environment. But it can do more than edit code.