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> (or if you cannot code, get involved in code reviews). This is the worst advice ever, esp. if you don't know how to code and don't have code readability for

by sabujp 11y ago

> (or if you cannot code, get involved in code reviews). This is the worst advice ever, esp. if you don't know how to code and don't have code readability for the language being used in the code review. Learn from code reviews, see what other people are saying, but don't comment on a fix unless you found something glaringly obvious.

greggyb 11y ago
I interpreted this section as saying something more along the lines of "if your job prevents you from engaging in coding as part of your day-to-day activities, but you otherwise know how to code, then maintain involvement with coding by participating in code reviews." It seems that his intended audience is expected to know how to code.
jsolson 11y ago
I'm a C++ developer at Google; I've been writing software "professionally"[0] for about 16 years, including a fair chunk of C, but no C++ until I reached Google. So, arguably I started in a position where commenting on code reviews was a bad idea. Nonetheless, I commented on LOTS of code reviews when I joined, but almost always with questions asking (usually) 'why is this done this way?' or (rarely) 'could this by done this other way?'. It helps that our code review tool lets you mark comments as 'no action required'. This allows the first form to be a genuine question without judgement. I would usually learn something, and sometimes the original author would revisit a decision and improve the code. I reserve the second form for when I'm pretty sure I think what I'm suggesting is an improvement. In my experience this allowed me to provide feedback without perceived ego or offense[1], but also accelerated the rate at which I came up to speed on both the language and the details of the project I'd joined. Despite being a few years in now and fairly familiar with our project, I try (although sometimes fail) to maintain this style today. [0]: My father got me my first development job as a subcontractor building terminal emulation software for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission at 16. I'd learned C a few years beforehand on QNX. A number of other jobs from the same folks followed over the years while I finished up high school and undergrad. [1]: Usually, anyway. There are some people who take ANY comment, question, or critique as an accusation. Thankfully I've encountered only one of these people at Google.

by sabujp 11y ago

greggyb 11y ago

I interpreted this section as saying something more along the lines of "if your job prevents you from engaging in coding as part of your day-to-day activities, but you otherwise know how to code, then maintain involvement with coding by participating in code reviews." It seems that his intended audience is expected to know how to code.

jsolson 11y ago

I'm a C++ developer at Google; I've been writing software "professionally"[0] for about 16 years, including a fair chunk of C, but no C++ until I reached Google. So, arguably I started in a position where commenting on code reviews was a bad idea. Nonetheless, I commented on LOTS of code reviews when I joined, but almost always with questions asking (usually) 'why is this done this way?' or (rarely) 'could this by done this other way?'. It helps that our code review tool lets you mark comments as 'no action required'. This allows the first form to be a genuine question without judgement. I would usually learn something, and sometimes the original author would revisit a decision and improve the code. I reserve the second form for when I'm pretty sure I think what I'm suggesting is an improvement. In my experience this allowed me to provide feedback without perceived ego or offense[1], but also accelerated the rate at which I came up to speed on both the language and the details of the project I'd joined. Despite being a few years in now and fairly familiar with our project, I try (although sometimes fail) to maintain this style today. [0]: My father got me my first development job as a subcontractor building terminal emulation software for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission at 16. I'd learned C a few years beforehand on QNX. A number of other jobs from the same folks followed over the years while I finished up high school and undergrad. [1]: Usually, anyway. There are some people who take ANY comment, question, or critique as an accusation. Thankfully I've encountered only one of these people at Google.