Re: Distributed code review discussion

From: W. Trevor King <wking@tremily.us>
Date: Jan 10, 2015, 18:54 UTC
Message-ID: <20150110185453.GL9044@odin.tremily.us>
In-Reply-To: <CAH5CKOqSc2qLZwhCrafYkXMvLmRxKeA_7OO+WzM2FQwKS9F3cQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 01:05:35PM -0500, Matus Faro wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> What I mean is a distributed code review system where a merge
> request along with review comments would be stored within the git
> repository and allowed to be pushed and pulled between repository
> clones. This would allow users to retain the code review history
> without relying on centralized or proprietary third party solutions.

You can do this today with pull-requests and code review happening in email, since you just have to distribute the mail archives to have a record of pull-requests and code review discussions (e.g. notmuch posts an mbox of it's list archives [1]). For better usability, you have a few more options borrowing from the notmuch workflow:

* Index messages in notmuch [2] (like notmuch does) and tag them so
  you know what branches are waiting on review [3] or author feedback
  [4].
* Use nmbug [5] to collaborate on tagging and distribute tags to
  interested parties.

Things I've been thinking about doing “at some point”:

* Use ssoma [6] or my ssoma-mda Python port [7] to store the list
  archives in Git using this format [8].  I'd like to teach notmuch to
  read messages directly from the ssoma archive, which would let you
  replace the mbox archive with something that's easier to collaborate
  on than an mbox archive (e.g. for removing duplicates or fixing
  typos).  If all interested parties are using ssoma-style storage for
  the archives, you don't have to worry about “oops, I didn't mean to
  hit send” types of errors, since it's easy to patch the archive
  itself.
* Provide a web-UI for browsing the archive and manipulating tags, so
  folks don't need to install Git / notmuch / ssoma to get involved in
  patch review.  I'd still have them submit comments via email, but
  you could have the web-app send email for them if you have
  anti-email users ;).

Cheers, Trevor

[1]: http://notmuchmail.org/archives/notmuch.mbox [2]: http://notmuchmail.org/ [3]: http://nmbug.tethera.net/status/#Review [4]: http://nmbug.tethera.net/status/#Moreinfo [5]: http://notmuchmail.org/nmbug/ [6]: http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/README [7]: http://git.tremily.us/?p=ssoma-mda.git [8]: http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/ssoma_repository.txt

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