I appreciate the tips, but please don't confuse ruby and rails.
I'm scared for the poor newbies who don't know where to look for help when things go wrong. If they think they have a ruby problem when it's actually a rails problem they'll be stuck looking in the wrong places for help.
A good one will give you exercises you can do to strengthen the muscles in your wrist. Mine gave me things I can do while I'm sitting in my chair thinking, or just on a quick break while still in the office.
Anyway, I agree with the parent: gadgets might help, but the real fix is likely exercise.
My chiropractor recommended the "Dyna-flex" gyro ball, when I developed persistent pain years back. This worked great for me as a way to strengthen the muscles in my arm, and my pain went away after a month. Since then, I have a twinge periodically, but I swear by device because it seems to work so well for me (and I barely use it since that initial month).
It's possible that different underlying issues alter the effectiveness, but I think the general advice of "exercise" is a good one. I'd also add that there's potential to hurt yourself more, so I'd rewrite the parent comment as "you should also see a physiotherapist."
If you are like me and prefer the homebrew solutions:
Take a broom handle and just rotate it in your hands for a minute. Add a string on that and a _small_ weight, and continue adding weight slowly (rolling the weight up to the bar and then back down). (edit: slowly being weekly)
Squeeze a stress ball for a solid 5 minute session in the morning.
Pushup type motions focusing on rotating through wrist angles once you are able.
I would recommend these to the healthy - if you are severely injured go to a doctor and get better first.
No matter how long you've been programming solo, you can't expect to sit down with a pair and have it "just work". Sure, it happens sometimes, but if it doesn't, you should practice it a bit before discounting the idea.
There are a few things the navigator can do to help out the driver while the driver is typing, but I hesitate to focus on them. In general, both programmers should be engaged. Learn to talk out ideas with your pair in short segments.
TDD helps. Test driving code naturally gives your pair many opportunities to inject their ideas without ruining your train of thought (ie: stop and discuss things at least after every test, preferably much more, but that comes with practice).
Absolutely. It took me four years of misstarts and agony (2000-2004) to really understand and get good at pair programming. During that time I mostly kept the faith about it since I was a zealous XP advocate, but had a large measure of doubt about its true effectiveness.
It took working with talented pair-programmers at ThoughtWorks to really make it click.
"During that time I mostly kept the faith about it since I was a zealous XP advocate, but had a large measure of doubt about its true effectiveness."
Revealing sentence.
You "had a large measure of doubt about its effectiveness" but since you were a "zealous advocate" (of something you were doubtful about!) you mostly "kept the faith".
Sounds pretty hypocritical and manipulative. How are we to believe your "zealous" declarations now?
No wonder agilists are often dismissed as "One True Way" religious fanatics.
I think the problem with telling most people not to touch your screen is that often they don't see an alternative. So I always make sure I have a pen with me. If someone touches my screen, I usually just hand them my pen and say "Here, point with this".
Not only do you avoid the finger-oil issues, but it's also more accurate.
I love to tell people that the hardest parts about writing software have nothing to do with code. It all has to do with communication.