[sldev] SLDev Viewer--code review

[Ricky]

Couldn't be a bad thing :D

Ricky
aka Cron Stardust

On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 7:21 PM, Philippe Bossut (Merov Linden) <
merov at lindenlab.com> wrote:

> 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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