in reply to Re: Re: Code for elegance, code for clarity
in thread Code for elegance, code for clarity

Hey, code reviews are your friend! They are not out to get to you! Code reviews are needed because sometimes people don't know that there is a nice common idiom for doing something, and because we all have a tendency to cut some corners if no one is looking. Code reviews keep us honest.

To be a great programmer, one has to learn to put the overall success of the team and the project ahead of one's personal attachment to his own code. I have a great deal of respect for people who can walk into a code review and look at their own code objectively as community property.

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Code for elegance, code for clarity
by flyingmoose (Priest) on Jan 12, 2004 at 18:25 UTC
    I have a great deal of respect for people who can walk into a code review and look at their own code objectively as community property.
    As do I. Really, I do. Unfortunately, people tend to take it personally sometimes, especially in some languages where code style borders on religion (which is why I speak of Java). I would love to see fair and unbiased code reviews, but you can't do that when the group is not a meritocracy, but rather ruled on seniority and posturing. Having meetings to question code quality can get very ugly unless everyone is on good terms and is in it for the good of the group not the individual. I want the former, but I have been unable to find it (sad, actually).
[reply]
      I have a great deal of respect for people who can walk into a code review and look at their own code objectively as community property.
      I had to.

      I was doing Y2K work at the time. The code I wrote wasn't really mine anyway. So, code review was the final acid test to see if what I was sending out was actually correct in every way and didn't cause any problems. In that environment, you quickly learn to disassociate yourself from your work. Otherwise, every question on the code can feel like a personal attack. I've watched that happen too.

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