from Hacker News

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

by baberuth on 4/11/11, 2:06 PM with 14 comments

• by frobozz on 4/11/11, 2:42 PM

  Interesting that the author suggests "maybe a feature off of stack overflow" Something like http://codereview.stackexchange.com perhaps?

• by rch on 4/11/11, 2:16 PM

  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.

• by davesmylie on 4/11/11, 10:32 PM

  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...

• by BasDirks on 4/11/11, 5:21 PM

  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)

• by Stuk on 4/11/11, 4:08 PM

  I was thinking along similar lines last week with regards to APIs. Obviously you want people to use them, and they only will if they're understandable and useful. It would be good to have something like http://fivesecondtest.com/, where people can comment on your ideas for "karma".

  (aside: I can't actually work out if people who complete reviews at 5 sec tests get paid? Or if they do just get karma)

• by omouse on 4/11/11, 5:21 PM

  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

• by dy on 4/11/11, 3:08 PM

  Another project in a similar vein is project metrics. Various times as I'm reviewing a library to include in my code, I'd like to compare various ones and see where the momentum is, how easy the code is to understand, how much work is being done on it. I think github is starting down this path but would like to see more of this type of thing.

• by bguthrie on 4/11/11, 5:58 PM

  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.