Some of the drawbacks of working with a partner is that you become dependent on each other. This can be troublesome as both can be working on code that the other needs. A way to solve this would be to do small pieces at a time so that one partner doesn't have to wait for a long time for the other partner to finish. Trying to get time to work with each other in school when both have conflicting responsibilities becomes difficult. However, thanks to the Internet one can communicate from anywhere there is a computer allowing both partners easier communication options. It becomes easy to slack off and let the other partner do all the work. Planning for this and working on a set schedule that has each partner working on their own pieces allows for less chance to slack off. Without good and proper communication the projects become like working on them individually, leading to issues like conflicting code or ideas. Yet again, if the partners communicate over the Internet this becomes a minute issue.
Some of the benefits are that you can get a fresh source of ideas and can ask questions to the other in case you don't know something. This can lead to solving problems easier than when working alone so long that each partner is actively communicating with one another. It also allows project flow to increase and smooth out. The work is split between the two making the project easier to do due to only needing to write half of the code to complete the assignment. Planning beforehand what each person is supposed to do allows this ease to continue so long as it is not abused or misinterpreted. You aren't as stressed because you have someone to rely on besides the TA's or the teacher leading to calmer thinking and easier working conditions. Yet again, it requires communication between the two partners to be effective or else you have no one to rely on because you can't communicate with them.Being able to talk with another person allows one to become more knowledgeable about the class as you can talk to your partner and meet new people through them that you can be friends with or help you work. This requires effort on one's own part to become successful in both making new friends and learning new things.
CSCI 3081W blog 2
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I like how you gave your opinion for both sides but the directions stated, not clearly, to stick to one. Not sure this matters for the final paper though. All in all I like the explanation of each piece. Clear and elaborate.
Tom Hoang
Good point on we should plan and make a set of schedule before the programming work together, which would clarify the duties thus improve the efficiency, also sometimes avoid the situations where we need the other one's code to continue. I really agree that communication is the key in collaboration in programming. If we just divide the work and work separately, we lost the essence of teamwork.
Han Lu
I agree almost entirely, but I disagree that working with a partner means "only needing to write half of the code to complete the assignment".
I think writing the code is only a small part of the work involved in completing a project. It is almost always necessary to understand at least some of what your partner has written, such that, for some parts of their code, you may as well have written it yourself.
When me and my partner work together on a project, we are constantly updating each other with where we are and the progress we have made so I must say I have to agree with you that communication is key. When we do not communicate, we get behind and this is not good the day before the assignment is due! I will have to try out your method of doing small pieces of the project at a time. One thing that I thought of that goes along with this is updating and committing frequently. This could also help if both people are working at the same time because if there is an error while submitting it, it will not take as much time to find and fix the problem.
-Zachary Panzer