Project Idea: Trade or buy code reviews (for independent developers) • Hacker News Board

Re: Project Idea: Trade or buy code reviews (for independent developers)

#11

Post by rch » Mon, Apr 11, 2011, 4:43 PM UTC

rch wrote: post #2

I'd get into that. I am a C/C++ guy, writing Python (etc.,etc.), with R/Perl programming coworkers. There is obvious value for me in external reviews. The trick is, could there be some sort of bilateral confidentially agreement? That's one I'd need to ponder a bit.

I'm not concerned about code confidentially at all :) ...but unfortunately, I am not in a position to make that call. The people I work with sometimes do important/secret things, so all the IP policies are geared to the extreme case. That said, as long as I have a path to declare what I plan to share and with who, then things could become much easier... in theory anyway.

Re: Project Idea: Trade or buy code reviews (for independent developers)

#12

Post by BasDirks » Mon, Apr 11, 2011, 5:21 PM UTC

Trading and buying unknown goods is considered bad practice. Build a system that matches people building similar things and I will be your first user. (SO is not modular enough)

Re: Project Idea: Trade or buy code reviews (for independent developers)

#13

Post by omouse » Mon, Apr 11, 2011, 5:21 PM UTC

Great idea, posted an order on Bitcoin-OverTheCounter: http://bitcoin-otc.com/vieworderbook.php?sortby=id&sorto...

If anyone has some bitcoins and wants a code review, send me an email: omouse@gmail.com

Re: Project Idea: Trade or buy code reviews (for independent developers)

#14

Post by bguthrie » Mon, Apr 11, 2011, 5:58 PM UTC

Rather than using a web site, join (or start) a local software craftsmanship group. I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to donate some time to look at your code, and you get the benefit of meeting other people in a community specifically dedicated to improving code quality and acquiring technical mastery.

Re: Project Idea: Trade or buy code reviews (for independent developers)

#15

Post by davesmylie » Mon, Apr 11, 2011, 10:32 PM UTC

A big issue I can foresee with this (other than confidentiality, etc) is simply the time required to give a quality review of a decent sized block of code, and making sure you get back a fair review in exchange.

You can review and give decent feedback on a small snippet of code fairly easily and quickly, but that's of limited value in a real project.

To be able to give a decent review (eg beyond a cursory "You should name that variable better, or your indentation sucks), requires that either the amount of code you are reviewing is so small that you can grok it quickly (limiting the value of the review), or that you spend at least some time familiarizing yourself with the rest of the code base so be able to gauge the impact of the code changes.

This is all good if the person you're trading reviews is prepared to spend the same amount of time on your code, but for example, I find it very frustrating when I spend 30-45 minutes giving a detailed review of a website on http://feedbackroulette.com (a similar concept, but for websites reviews), only to get back a 3 sentence review in exchange that was clearly bashed off in about 30 seconds. Awarding points for reviews goes someway to alleviate this, but still it's a real pita...