The impact of file position on code review
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#2One of the few times I've read a paper before it was posted.
I like this paper. While it's not anything groundbreaking or sensational, it did help me with the design of something I am working on.
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#3It's a angle I hadn't considered, but I'm aware that I likely do this so the impact of the paper is that I be more dilligent. Thank you for sharing.
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#4Heh, I've had certain modules where I ended up prefixing the files with `a_initialization.lang` `b_startup.lang` `c_run_the_thing.lang` [...] to make it easier to read for humans. Just like, in, say, a book, where the chapters appear in a specific order, the order of things matters! Probably this is a literate programming sort of thing?
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#5I have always preferred small, self-contained commits for this reason. The GUI tooling for line based commits has left me wanting though. Maybe an LLM can be trained to demux commits.
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#6Makes sense. As a reviewer I take active steps to focus primarily on the main change by "minimizing" (Phabricator) test and other incidental file changes in my first pass.
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#7Note to self: bury malicious code in "later"-reviewed files.
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#8My coworker Toby Crawley recently developed this Firefox plugin to randomize the order of files in GitHub PR reviews:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/github-pr-fil...
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#9I've recently started using Github code reviews for a lot of C++, and one thing that I wish it would do is show the header (.h) files before the implementation (.cc) files.
Small PRs help, but I often end up just opening a handful of windows to have everything open at once.
Re: The impact of file position on code review
#10I've recently started using Github code reviews for a lot of C++, and one thing that I wish it would do is show the header (.h) files before the implementation (.cc) files. Small PRs help, but I often end up just opening a handful of windows to have everything open at once.
You can't do that in github as far as I know, but you can get git to display diffs that way (eg. for local review or email based workflows). You have to use a git "orderfile". Example:
https://gitlab.com/nbdkit/nbdkit/-/blob/master/scripts/git.o...
We found it useful to display header files, interface files and documentation first, but maybe the linked paper will make us review that!