Re: What's cooking in git.git (Jul 2018, #03; Wed, 25)

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 27, 2018, 17:28 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqd0v8oaf5.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <87fu0469d1.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com>

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

> Count me in the "this is useful" camp, but also I did look at the latest
> submission this time around, but had nothing to say, so I didn't say
> anything :)

Please make it a habit to do say something to show that you did carefully review the series especially in such a case, which helps to differentiate a change that is interesting to nobody, and one that is so obviously well done that there is nothing to add.

What I have been doing from time to time, when I think there is nothing bad in particular to point out, is to quote a part that is especially tricky to get right and think it aloud to show how I would reason why the result of the change is correct. This type of review helps in two and a half ways:

 (1) We can see a correction to what the reviewer said, which could
     lead to further improvement ("no, the code does not quite work
     that way, so it is still buggy", or "no, the code does not work
     that way, but triggering that bug is impossible because the
     caller high above will not call us in that case", etc.),

 (2) The reviewer can demonstrate to others that s/he understands
     the area being touched well enough to explain how it works
     correctly, and a "looks good to me" comment from the reviewer
     on that change becomes more credible than a mere "looked good
     and I have nothing else to add".

Thanks.