Do's and Don'ts of Code Review

2 points by supjeff 5 years ago | 1 comment

As a long-time developer who has reviewed a lot of code, and had a lot of code reviewed, I would like to share some of my Dos and Don'ts of code reviews:

DO point out logical errors.

DO point out possible memory leaks or performance shortfalls.

DO give examples for resolving potential issues.

DO ask questions related to functionality.

DON'T withhold approval for stylistic deviations.

Thank you!

bitfield 5 years ago |

This depends on the context, though. In my open source projects, I have many contributors, so it's important to maintain a consistent style throughout (for example, naming conventions, so that the same data is always called the same thing).

A commercial software project will also have a 'house style' which all contributors are required to follow. It's okay to withhold approval on this basis.

What I think you're saying, and I agree with it, is "don't withhold approval just because this isn't your style".