How effective is pair programming when there is a skill and/or experience disparity between the two programmers? Will the worse/newer programming only hold back the better/more experienced programmer? Note: I'm not suggesting such was the case here.
I'm sure it depends, in my experience, the best way to learn is from a more experienced programmer. I would make the newer programmer drive so he doesn't end up twiddling his thumbs.
So I'd say, no, the newer programmer will not hold back the more experienced, more likely the newer programmer will just learn a lot.
(This assumes the newbie has previous experience with IDE/typing, is not actually 'worse' in the 'stupid' sense, but just less experienced).
