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Discussion on: Please be professional and stop saying "I'm almost done!"

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cutiko profile image
Erick Navarro

A code review I dislike is

Can you do this in that other way?

It is so vague, it seems like throwing a comment because of a hunch. The problem is:

  • It was done one way and not others because the developer evaluates the trade-off
  • Sometimes those review comments are not even possible, but there you go down the rabbit hole, 8 hours later and 12 refactors, you find out you were right all along.
  • Code reviews are from developers to developers, the reviewer should take the minimum time to open the IDE and at least see if a method like the allegedly suggested exists. That would reduce ambiguity with overload methods and will put the committer on the right track.

Code review is not making other people's jobs or delivering them the solution on a silver platter but is neither about sending someone on a wild goose chase.

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dvddpl profile image
Davide de Paolis

absolutely.
such a comment in a code review does not make much sense. And honestly i would take for granted that the reviewer knows really well the codebase (and has checkout out the branch to see the piece of code in its entirety and maybe try it out)

If the other way is just a matter of taste, it is bad, if it is indeed a better solution but not preventing major bugs or solving a problem that may arise, and you are already tight on the schedule , it can be better to leave it as it is, or maybe create an Issue on Github/Gitlab or a followup ticket that will be estimated and planned.