rapp - a WIP
A few weeks ago, I was working with a friend on a coding problem and found constantly having to swap the laptop between each other or sending each other code snippets via messenger rather cumbersome. This got me thinking and I came up with an idea to create a website where you could share a session with a partner and one user could code and both users could chat about the code and work together.
I pitched this idea to my friend and he said it sounded like a good idea. I thought it would integrate well into agile teams doing pair-programming particularly modern workplaces where offices can be so far apart. Hence the name rapp - Remote Agile Pair Programming, was born.
The next few weeks myself and a few friends have been working hard to bring this project to life. We now have a product almost ready for alpha release. Despite the spaghetti code the application has some quite broad functionality as we have though of clever features to add throughout development. Partners can audio call via WebRTC and switch roles, there is a full screen mode with chat notifications and the editor is customisable. User can code in different languages, download files they create and this all while they are getting feedback from the observer, who can watch each action and ensure the code is bug free and solves the problem effectively.
We are very excited to get rapp in the hands of users and to see how people use it. One use case which we see as quite effective, is for beginners to programming learning from someone more experienced. Truth is, starting out is quite daunting, and despite many resources and forums, beginners often don't know where to go or who to ask when in need of help. We are hoping to foster a community of mutual respect and generosity with rapp wherein more experienced developers may help beginners and perhaps gain points on a leaderboard, though this feature is not implemented yet, it is planned for the beta. This would encourage experienced programmers to help others and hopefully encourage many more people to learn to code. But for now, watch this space! rapp is coming soon!
- etopiei (28/4/17)