[sldev] SLDev Viewer--code review

[Philippe Bossut (Merov Linden)]

Hi,

I've been ruminating that one, especially the "live" aspect of it.  
When it was proposed during the Hippo gathering I immediately said  
"why not?". Reading Mike's writing though, I'm wondering. Some  
elements of reflection:
- Code reviews are good: I personally learned a lot along the years  
every time I was able to sit down with someone and go through code  
line by line, being my code or the one of others.
- Committees are bad: That being said, doing this in a committee (i.e.  
3 persons or more) is incredibly inefficient, unless the people know  
each other really well. The human psychology usually moves the  
objective of such gathering from "let's raise a barn together" to  
"who's the king of the hill". Terrible.
- Live chat with others about code with some code in hand is a good  
idea: Coming up to someone with a problem and chatting about it often  
steers you in the right direction. And I'm a chatterbox so that suit  
me really well but others might feel differently and shouldn't be  
pushed out as a result.
- One can't ignore RL realities: A formal process imposing real time  
constraints will leave part of the planet out (time zone conflicts).  
*Speaking* English will also be challenging for lots of us (reading  
and typing is easier). I for one am not a native english speaker and  
though I'm doing well now with English (despite a horrendous French  
accent), I do empathize with those who don't. In short, I'm wary of  
making a formal real time voice enabled presentation a requirement.

With all that in hand. here's my stand on the subject:
- "Formal" (format TBD) code review need to happen on the list and/or  
JIRA in writing: i.e. in the open, asynchronously, trackable. This is  
how I've seen it done in other projects.
- Contributors *should* whenever possible get the help of others on  
IRC and/or IW in ad-hoc sessions with a reviewer. Definitely, I hear  
Mike's pledge for voice IW interaction. I miss it and I think it'll  
help us get to know each other and smooth the kinks in that group.  
Having an office hour of sort for some of us would make sense for  
instance. I'd be willing to have one and see how it works. Any takers?

Cheers,
- Merov

On May 6, 2009, at 10:32 AM, Mike Monkowski wrote:

> I haven't heard any feedback on the preliminary page describing the
> SLDev Open Source Viewer project at
> http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Mm_Alder/SLDev_Open_Source_Viewer
> but there's a lot to read there, so maybe people were scared away by  
> its
> length, but I would particularly be interested in hearing comments on
> the code review section:
>
>> OK, so I'm completely making this part up, but this is the way I  
>> think it should happen.
>>
>> Every week open source developers and Lindens gather at a miniature  
>> Roman Coliseum on Hippotropolis.
>>
>> Contributors have added their names to a list on the wiki together  
>> with a link pointing to the PJIRA issue that describes their  
>> contributions and includes a patch file made against the current  
>> version of the SLDev open source. One by one the contributors are  
>> called before the Linden tribunal. Using voice chat and an in-world  
>> display showing the code with highlights on the changes, the  
>> contributor describes what that part of the code used to do and how  
>> this contribution makes it better. Developers politely ask  
>> questions using text chat, and the contributor answers them in turn.
>>
>> In the end, everyone learns something, and if the code is deemed  
>> worthy, the contribution is given a thumbs up approval. If not,  
>> lions. Or at least a second chance.
>>
>> Well that's the way I think it should work, except for the lions.
>
> Is this technically feasible in SL?  If such a gathering were to take
> place, would anyone show up?  I see it as a way to build a community,
> learn the viewer code, and get changes implemented.  I think it would
> make life easier for reviewers as well.  Anybody else see it this way?
> Or would it just be a waste of time?  Does the mention of "voice chat"
> doom it from its inception?
>
> Mike
> Mm Alder
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