Is webrev generation still relevant?

[David Holmes]

On 18/01/2024 7:04 pm, Magnus Ihse Bursie wrote:
> At the onset of Project Skara, one goal was to keep backwards 
> compatibility with developers' workflows. For this, a Skara bot was 
> created which generates webrevs, as closely aligned to the original ksh 
> webrev script as possible.
> 
> Now I believe all developers are well into the Skara/GitHub way of doing 
> things, and I have not heard someone refer to webrevs in a long time. So 
> my first question is:
> 
> * Is it still relevant to continue let the Skara bots generate webrevs?

Yes - for all the reasons others have given. Github UI is fine for small 
to medium changes but tricky for larger more complex ones, or for when a 
small review goes through many iterations.

> I personally have only used webrevs on a few occasions the last years, 
> and those have all been when the GitHub diff viewer was inadequate. For 
> instance, the webrev bot uses a more aggressive method of letting git 
> match files that have been simultaneously moved and edited, and the 
> Frames view align code side-by-side which is sometimes much more helpful 
> than the line-by-line view in GitHub. So, my second question is:
> 
> * Should we keep the idea of a bot that generates diff pages, but 
> instead of mimicking the old webrev script, tailor it to cover up for 
> those use cases where GitHub falls short?

That depends on exactly what you mean? The webrev frames view is its 
most valuable aspect to me.

Cheers,
David
-----

> I'm not suggesting we should immediately turn of the webrev bot, so if 
> you still like and use it, there is no cause for panic. I'm just trying 
> to get a sense of how people feel about the future for webrevs.
> 
> /Magnus
>