Who Should Read This Book?

Every programmer, whether working remotely or from an office, can benefit from the technologies and advice discussed in this book. Being physically remote is an optional part of remote pair programming, and many colocated developers prefer the techniques discussed in this book to sharing a physical space.

Traditional pair programming requires sharing a computer, which means you’re also sharing a keyboard, mouse, and everything else you touch. The close proximity also means you share germs, viruses, and odors. But pair programming with remote techniques, even if you sit within speaking distance of your pairing partner, can make the experience more comfortable and productive.

The technologies covered in this book favor a certain type of developer—one who is comfortable with the command line. The techniques and tools you’ll learn about are not limited to the terminal, but command-line tools are favored because they tend to require less bandwidth and handle high-latency networks better than many other mediums.

As a result, some of the techniques we’ll discuss simply won’t work with frameworks like .NET or iOS. But it’s still possible, and desirable, to employ remote pair programming on applications that use these frameworks. All of the tools you’ll need are discussed in this book, and many of the tools that are not applicable can be tweaked to suit your needs. For example, we’ll discuss how to create an Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance running Linux, but the same principles apply if you need a server running Windows. The book even contains alternate paths in many chapters for readers that are running Windows. No matter what platform you favor or what technologies you’re working with, this book will have something for you.

If you’re a remote worker, or if the people you work with are dispersed across the country, then you’ll gain the most from this book. We’ll discuss how to solve problems of latency, bandwidth, security, and connectivity. But the same techniques apply regardless of your location.