Blog 2

Working with a partner has both drawbacks and benefits although the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. When you work alone, you have those debugging moments everything looks completely fine and yet your code still does not work. You continue to stare at the code but it is no use and you're just wasting time. Then finally for some reason or another, your mistake hits you and it seems like the most obvious thing in the world. Moments like these tend to disappear when you have a partner. Simply having another pair of eyes on the code helps significantly cut down on the amount of trivial mistakes. This also works for seeing potential problems. Error checking will be better and there are more possibilities of input that could break your program. Another advantage of working with a partner is the diversity of ideas. Your partner might have a more efficient or more readable way of doing things. They can point out the fundamental flaws in your idea, or you can reach a creative medium between the potential strategies. The best part is you only have to write half the code (in the ideal situation). But there are disadvantages. If you are not careful about the way you store your code, you could potentially save over your partners work or vice versa. This can be mitigated using software like Subversion. Subversion has conflict resolution software, and other features to ensure you do not accidently destroy a few hours of work. Another problem is that the influx of ideas can prove a distraction when you have a deadline. A few key hours that could have been spent coding on a safe idea, could be frivolously lost on an idea that never really panned out, and had limited applicability. You also have to invest a certain amount in communication with your partner. If you're dividing the workload, what is who's responsibility, and if not then what times you can meet to code.