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ESPRESSO FRIDAYS

I found the secret for Neovim pair programming

Published 5 days ago • 1 min read

Hi friends,

Ever felt like your remote pair programming sessions were missing that seamless, in-person collaboration feel?

You’re not alone.

Many developers struggle to recreate the magic of side-by-side coding in a virtual environment.

​A recent study shows that pair programming has been proven to catch mistakes early, reduce defects, and lead to better designs. The same study found that teams who practice pair programming not only produce shorter, more efficient code but also solve problems faster and enjoy their work more.

However, achieving this level of collaboration remotely has been a challenge – until now.

Most developers resort to screen sharing or clunky IDE plugins for remote pair programming.
But what about those of us who live in the terminal?

Enter Tmate – the pair-programming game-changer for Neovim enthusiasts and terminal lovers.

Tmate: a fork of Tmux

Offers a brilliant solution for secure and instant terminal sharing:

  1. Install Tmate on your system (available for most platforms).
  2. Start a Tmate session, which will provide you with a unique SSH address (or a webview option!)
  3. Share this address with your coding partner.
  4. Your partner can now join your terminal session, seeing and interacting with your Neovim environment in real-time.

But Tmate isn’t just about sharing your screen.

It offers fine-grained control:

  • Create read-only sessions for code reviews.
  • Use named sessions with static URLs for recurring collaborations.
  • Limit sessions to specific processes for focused work.

By mastering Tmate for Neovim pair programming, you’re not just solving a technical challenge – you’re enhancing your entire collaborative coding experience.

Feel free to reply here directly with your views - do you have a better setup?
Do you feel differently about pair programming?

Have a great weekend!

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

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ESPRESSO FRIDAYS

Every once in a while I send hand picked things I've learned. Kind of like your filter to the tech internet. No spam, I promise!

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