Code Review
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Definition
Code Review is systematic examination (often known as Peer Review) of computer source code. It is intended to remediate mistakes in programming or code smell, improving both the overall quality of software and the developers’ skills.
Reviews are done in various forms, including Pull Requests (PRs), which are what Bitbucket calls, “light-weight code review”, saving time (using a nice tool) and money (avoiding bugs).
Code reviews complement tool-driven practices, such as the use of Static Code Analysis tools (e.g. flake8, Pylint, JSLint, CSSLint, etc.). Both address code smell.
Tips for Successful Code Reviews
- Review small chunks of code (= make small PRs)
- If you review large PRs do it as a team (Team Code Review)
- Use established guidelines, manifestos and design patterns to settle discussions (e.g. PEP 20, DRY, KISS, YAGNI)
See Also
- Refactoring
- Code Smell (static code analysis)
- Transparency
External Resources
- Every team needs kick-ass code reviews (Atlassian blog)
- Making a Pull Request (Atlassian / Git / Tutorials)
- Code Review Guidelines (Google Engineering recommendations)
- Code review (Wikipedia)
- PEP 20 (The Zen of Python)
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