Here's a situation that actually comes up all the time in my remote pairing sessions. Both peers have mutli-screen setups where a terminal (tailing logs, etc.), an IDE, and a web browser (perhaps even the browser dev tools) are all in separate windows, where some windows are on one display, some on another. With CoScreen, would "hey, can we check the logs real quick?" become as simple as the other peer clicking the window to add it to the session? That could be pretty big on its own IMO!
Also really useful, as the non-driving peer is looking up documentation and adding it to the session for group reference.
I'd love to try this out eventually, joining a new team soon and perhaps I can pull it off there if/when pairing needs arise!
No problem! It's actually a great conversation starter.
"With CoScreen, would "hey, can we check the logs real quick?" become as simple as the other peer clicking the window to add it to the session?"
Basically yes, there is a tab that shows above your window.
At the moment we have a shared context space, so your windows have a relative location that is based on the layout of the remote screen.
Ultimately this helps in like the pair programming scenario you make above, but is a weakness in other situations: we are working on a model that will let you break all of the window locations apart, or relatively translate the position of another user's windows wherever you want.
"I'd love to try this out eventually, joining a new team soon and perhaps I can pull it off there if/when pairing needs arise!"
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I think it's a really good question and not snarky at all.
This is honestly one of the biggest hurdles I think we have towards adoption.
We have bet a lot on the benefits of producing frictionless remote app-level sharing.
At the moment you can share one application, or your entire desktop with other tools. Then there is the friction of allowing sharing, asking for sharing, or even down to just knowing where the remote user's cursor is at.
CoScreen eliminates all of that. Anyone can share any window at any time. You see their shared cursor over your window that is translated into the adjusted coordinate space for that window.
You can be discussing a piece of code, share vim in Alacritty, or iTerm. The remote user looks up some documentation, and immediately shares it with you. Or you have a Android/iOS emulator that you want to immediately preview your work in.
Basically you're working in a shared working space more analogous to what you would experience in the office.
It's a paradigm shift from video conferencing, and traditional screen sharing tools that I think has to be experienced to be understood.
That being said it's going to be a great challenge to make this experience more transparent, and we are actively working on different scaling modes, the ability to move windows independent of remote users, and other concerns that we think will take it to the next level.
Our goal is to facilitate things like pair programming by fading into the background and just letting you continue with your normal workflow while not thinking about the tooling behind it.