Publishing code reviews

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi Phil,

On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 09:25 -0700, Phil Race wrote:
> Mark Wielaard wrote:
> > classpath-patches at gnu.org posting of proposed patches (in diff -u
> > format) for review. All replies and suggestions for improvements and
> > final approval of the patches also go to this list. Some projects (like
> > gcc) also have a bot that you can inform of the formal patch proposal so
> > it can monitor whether there was any reply. In classpath we require
> > developers to ping their patches themselves if there is no reply in a
> > reasonable time.
> 
> Emailing diffs out to a list is fine, so long as this isn't
> the actual review format for the identified reviewers who will
> want a webrev.

Sure, as long as email is send even if people use the webrev application
so that there is a public record of the review process that can be
easily archived. Personally I would like patches by email since that
makes it easy to review and comment even when offline.

>  By "identified reviewers", perhaps thing that wasn't
> clear about our processes is that the change author identifies
> the reviewers who are most appropriate and they are on the hook to
> respond. We don't send patches to a list and hope for a response.

How does that work with volunteers? You cannot force people to review if
they don't actually have time immediately for your particular patch can
you?

> In fact no one I know of here would want to receive emails of all
> the patches, so likely wouldn't subscribe to such a list.

Interesting. How do people keep a general idea about progress in the
whole project then? I admit to not always read all patches on all the
patches mailinglists I am subscribed to. But I do read most of them at
least casually to get a feeling for what parts of the project are
working on. I am not pretending I actually understand them all of
course, but it is a nice way to keep your knowledge up to date.

> What does "ping their patches" mean?

Send a reminder to the list and/or reviewers that a patch is still
waiting for more comments.

> > classpath-bugs at gnu.org All new or modified bugzilla entries get posted
> > here (which includes the commit-bot updates when a commit message
> > contains a bug number). Replying to these emails also updates the
> > bugzilla entries, so it is an easy way to interact with the bug
> > reporters and to monitor when a particular issue is often reported or
> > commented on.
> 
> 
> I'd really like to see updates to bugs emailed out .. hopefully soon,

That is good to hear! Looking forward to that.

Cheers,

Mark