Well, not really a poll but at least some random opinions. A while ago, I mentioned a discussion I had with Perry Metzger about pair programming. Metzger, who is a serious person and well worth listening to, is a huge fan and says that he’s never been so productive as when he’s pair programming. I, on the other hand, imagine that it would be much like hell.
I have always thought that most programmers—for reasons that I couldn’t imagine—like pair programming. Certainly there is a lot of positive commentary about it on the Web. But perhaps I was wrong.
abdullah_ayyash over at the Programming subreddit asks what people think of pair programming and why they like it if they do. The answers are what any reasonable person would expect: some like it, others don’t. Those who don’t like it appear more emphatic in their opinions but the opinions seem evenly split.
Part of the problem, it seems, is exactly what you mean by “pair programming”. I think of it as a formal and planned sitting down together to write code. Others have a loser definition. Their definitions include such things as sitting down to debug a problem together or as a simple mentoring. I’ve done both those things but wouldn’t describe them as pair programming.
Even among those supporting it, my sense is that they see it as an occasional way of mentoring or sharing ideas, not as an everyday way of working.
Sorry, but I’m recalcitrant. I’m not going to do anything that resembles the strict definition of pair programming. Not now, not ever. Still, lots of people feel otherwise and I have no objection to them indulging themselves. Perhaps that’s the nub of the matter: if you pair program because you feel it helps you, go for it. My objection is to mandating its use.