[sldev] SLDev Viewer--code review

[Paul Oppenheim (Poppy Linden)]

I'm happy to review messaging, cmake, http, or other misc infrastructure patches. Email, IM (sl, AIM, or skype) and we can voice (sl or skype) mid-late day PST (early in the day for asia ;) ideally you have a shell session using screen I can hop in as, or something of that nature.

+ poppy

Philippe Bossut (Merov Linden) 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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