OpenJDK Code review system - Request for use cases and requirements

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On 04/14/2011 11:06 AM, Mohan Pakkurti wrote:
> Hello
>
> I am looking at undertaking some projects to help improve the infrastructure for OpenJDK.
>
> One of the systems that is often requested is an open code review system, and I want to understand what we would want from this.
>
> I came across this blog entry http://blogs.sun.com/mr/entry/open_webrevs and want to get this discussion started again by asking you for input.
>
> What use cases would you have for this system?
> What features would you like to see in this system?

Ability to see diffs "side by side" as in webrev output or "meld" or 
other GUI diff tools.   Raw diff listings are not enough.

Ability to see diffs since the last review, as well as diffs since the 
repo baseline.   We occasionally create huge changesets, and have to 
wade through thousands or lines of diffs, and need to suggest a few 
changes.   When the followup review is presented, I don't want to wade 
through all those thousands of lines of changes checking that stuff 
hasn't changed since the last review.  [[ Although this is not directly 
supported by webrev, I note that you can write scripts to add extra 
files, such as a "delta-webrev", into a webrev directory or webrev.zip 
file.  Ugly, but it works. ]]

Ability to nominate reviewers.

Tracking system: what reviews do I have outstanding, who has approved my 
outstanding reviews so far, etc.  Email notification of updates, nag 
mail, etc.  Archive of review comments.


> What other systems and processes do you see the code review system integrate with?

Bug tracking system, and/or Mercurial. Reviews should be identified (in 
part) by bug number. Reviews should disappear off the radar when a 
changeset has been committed and the bug status updated.

> Any suggestions for systems we should consider for this?
Without necessarily suggesting them as candidates, I'd suggest looking 
at Review Board and the internal sa.sfbay "webrev robot" for features of 
interest.

> Do you have any other comments on this topic?
>
> Cheers
> Mohan