[Insight-developers] Code review tool for ITK

[Dan Mueller]

Hi Luis (and Insight Developers),

In a recent email to the developer's list, Luis mentioned the idea of
a systematic code review system for ITK.

> It looks like we *MUST* implement some sort of
> *systematic* code-review practice.
>
> I'm looking at [http://www.review-board.org/] as an option.

At the time I thought this was a fantastic idea, but did not voice my
enthusiasm. I do so now, in the hope this idea may live on and come to
fruition. Perhaps there has been progress I am unaware of?

At my work I have become accustomed to the policy that all commit logs
must contain the link to the code review regarding the changeset. This
ensures all code has been seen by at least one other person before
entering the archive. Reviewing code is also a great way for developer
newbies (like myself) to learn more about the codebase and interact
with other developers. I guess the one risk is that the process may
become a bottleneck. But we'll never know if we don't give it a go!

I had a (quick) play with two tools:
    http://www.review-board.org/
and
    http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/rietveld.html
    http://code.google.com/p/rietveld/

If you are interested *you* can play with a demo of each system:
    http://demo.review-board.org/
   (requires you to create a user account)
and
    http://codereview.appspot.com/

I quite like the look-and-feel of the Google associated "Rietveld"
tool, as I am a regular Gmail, Google Reader, Google Code, Gxxxx,
user.

Please let me/us know your thoughts.

Regards, Dan