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My thoughts exactly, but I'm surprised how hard it is to change the usual code review based routine where the design is only revealed with the actual code and t
by rixed 5y ago
My thoughts exactly, but I'm surprised how hard it is to change the usual code review based routine where the design is only revealed with the actual code and tests when everything is done and it's too late to discuss the premises.
My best guess is that developers just love code reviews.
But now that I think of it, maybe they rather loathe writing plain English. Maybe there exist some simple yet more or less formal language that could be used to write design docs?
- legerdemain 5y agoEverywhere I have worked, code "review" was a cargo cult of people mechanically rubber-stamping each other's changes with zero context or consideration. And these weren't particularly dysfunctional companies!
- watwut 5y agoI worked in a place where it was not like that. And it was dysfunctional. Instead, people nitpicked to death and tried to one-up each other with findings. There are loooong arguments over completely irrelevant details. There were multiple rounds of review, sometimes changing the code there and back again. People attempted to code into review comments. And the expectations changed every week, there was no stable standard. It was more about taking control and showing yourself more caring by finding increasingly insignificant things and then insisting on them.
- legerdemain 5y agoCode reviews are a smell.
- TameAntelope 5y agoNot wanting someone to review your code is a bigger smell, IMO.
- pferde 5y ago"Only children and fools speak in absolutes." -someone, somewhere, I don't remember. Code reviews can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on what each party brings in and intends to get out of them. Painting them unequivocally as bad is rather silly.
- regularfry 5y agoCode reviews are one of the very few software practices that there's good evidence in favour of. This is not necessarily in conflict with your statement.
- ryohkyo 5y agoOops, and I thought civil engineering was messy. Time to switch back to civil engineering, at least it is, more civil than this.
- nicoburns 5y agoI reckon if you have all senior developers, and design considerations are being dealt with / communicated about in other places (e.g. ahead of time, before the code is written). Then this is largely how things should go: a quick once over to try and spot obvious mistakes. I've worked in companies where code review was like this and it worked pretty well.