Sangam

The biggest obstacle to adopting eXtreme Programming is usually the distributed nature of teams in most software houses. There have been desktop sharing solutions for a while, which send across the compressed differential of images. But the problem with this approach is, no matter how small the image is- it is still a lot of data. Even a 100 x 100 pixel area would be 10KB worth of pixel data. Most countries dont possess massive bandwidth at their disposal, and those that do, could make better utilization of it.

Keeping this in mind, Sangam is a unique effort to develop the world's first distributed pair programming plugin - for the open-source Eclipse platform. The Sangam plugin uses the high-performance, ultra-lightweight, open-source Kizna Syncshare Server for messaging. It enables programmers to do distributed pair-programming on a codebase that exists on both ends.

A typical pair-programming session using Sangam would start with synchronizing the local workspace with a remote repository - so that all participants have the same code as they start out. Then, they all connect to the syncshare server, and one of them can decide to drive. On clicking the drive button, all other participants get their IDEs locked, while the driver goes ahead and types in code. All participants can chat within the Eclipse IDE.

Common actions such as opening a new file, creating a new java program, scrolling through code, etc. are shared across the network in real time.

The Sangam plugin was primarily developed to be usable even across slow dial-up 33.6 kbps connections.

Heard enough ? You can get it from http://sangam.sourceforge.net. Sangam means "confluence" in Sanskrit, and signifies the intention to bring about a confluence of programmers to create great software. The Sangam project was founded by Somik Raha, Extreme Programmer and Coach, Industrial Logic, Inc, and has been co-designed by Amit Rana, System Architect, CTC Corporation, Tokyo.