/Code Review

How To Review Code Effectively: A GitHub Staff Engineer’s Philosophy

- Sarah Vessels tl;dr: “Over the past eight years, I’ve reviewed more than 7,000 pull requests. Why so many? Because code review is crucial to building good software and another set of eyes can often spot issues you would have otherwise missed.” Sarah discusses how to (1) Fine-tune your code review process. (2) What makes a code review good or bad? (3) How to give a good code review. (4) How to get the most out of code reviews. 

featured in #537

Improving Code Reviews With Storytelling

- Chandler Mayo Nic Manoogian tl;dr: At Doppler, we've enhanced our code reviews by weaving storytelling into git history, making reviews insightful and efficient. This approach, focusing on clear commit narratives, not only speeds up reviews but also fosters a culture of clarity, learning, and collaboration within our team.

featured in #503

Accelerating Code Reviews With Nudges

- Abi Noda tl;dr: In 2020, the code review team at Meta discovered that 85% of developers were satisfied with the code review process in general. They were less satisfied with the speed with which their code was reviewed. This inspired a core hypothesis that the NudgeBot could decrease code review time in 3 ways: (1) The time a diff waits in the ‘needs review’ status. (2) The number of diffs that take over 3 days to close, this timeframe was chosen because they were only nudging diffs after 24 hours. (3) The time to first action. 

featured in #488

The Art Of Good Code Review

- Phil Booth tl;dr: What does a good code review look like? Phil outlines 5 things you want to get right as a reviewer: (1) The description: “Is there one? Does it make sense? Does it include all of the information required to understand the code?” (2) The code: Build a mental model of the code, then ask yourself: "Am I happy to maintain this?" (3) The tests: Compare the tests and code side-by-side. Look for things that seem missing or out of place. Ask questions about anything that doesn't match your expectations. (4) Commenting: Be considerate, honest and open-minded. (5) Approval: Withhold approval until you're confident that you fully understand the change.

featured in #484

Pair Review: Streamlining Complex Code Reviews with Pair Programming

- Dave Gaeddert tl;dr: The standard way to do code review is with back-and-forth, asynchronous GitHub comments. But is that always the best fit? Like with any complex discussion, there are times when it's simply better to talk face-to-face. Pair reviews can be a nice balance for orgs that don't fully embrace pair programming otherwise.

featured in #423

Improving On The GitHub Code Review Comment Experience

- Dylan Trotter tl;dr: "There are a bunch of limitations with the conversation experience in GitHub that had always bothered us and we felt we could do better. Here are a few of the ways that the plz.review comment and conversation UX is a big improvement over GitHub."

featured in #332

The Code Review Pyramid

- Gunnar Morling tl;dr: The intention behind the Code Review Pyramid is to help put focus on the parts which matter the most during a code review, and what can be automated. The peak of the pyramid are matters that require small effort to change later on i.e. code style and tests, and the bottom require significant effort i.e. documentation, implementation and API semantics.

featured in #299

An Extremely Casual Code Review Of MetaMask’s Crypto

tl;dr: "This post describes a very casual code review of a few cryptography functions used by MetaMask. It does not describe any vulnerabilities. If you’re the kind of person who likes a meandering and amateurish code review that goes absolutely nowhere, you’ll enjoy this post."

featured in #284

How To Review Code As A Junior Developer

- Emma Catlin tl;dr: (1) "If something is not clear to you, it probably isn’t clear to everyone," so ask questions. (2) Calibrate feedback - "work to cater recommendations to the individual." (3) Emulate others "by observing how your coworkers review code, you can learn what to pay attention to when you’re writing code.

featured in #238

How To Make Your Code Reviewer Fall In Love With You

- Michael Lynch tl;dr: Many tips, including review your own code first, write a clear changelist description to provide context, conduct your review after your code passes all automated tests, and more.

featured in #218