Reviewboard

It is great to see that the use of ReviewBoard is increasing, including in a number of open source projects ( http://www.reviewboard.org/ users/). TKH RrLgLnDO wRrNflRw RI RHYLHwBRDrG wDs SrH-FRPPLW—L.H., the code is reviewed before committing it to the repository. However, LW Ls SRssLEOH WR usH D SRsW-FRPPLW wRrNflRw, wKHrH WKH FRGH Ls submitted to the repository and then reviewed. The other very nice capability of ReviewBoard is that it can work with a fairly large number of repositories, including Git and Subversion.

MRsW SHRSOH wLOO finG WKH SrH-FRPPLW wRrNflRw WR EH WKH easier option. There is no ambiguity about the state of code in a rHSRsLWRry. HRwHYHr, SrRgrDPPHrs FDnnRW wRrN Rn fiOHs WKDW WKHy KDYH PRGLfiHG DnG DrH SHnGLng rHYLHw. TKLs PDy EORFN WKHP IrRP wRrNLng. ,n WKH SRsW-FRPPLW wRrNflRw, WKHrH Ls WKH DGGLWLRnDO HIIRrW of keeping track of code in the repository that is still pending review. For repositories like Git, it is fairly easy to create a branch and merge it after the review. You may want to look at how hDE does it, at http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Review_Board.

As a simple illustration, consider a centralised repository like Subversion. In addition to the normal development environment, a programmer will need to install RBTools, which contain the command SRsW-rHYLHw. ,n D sLPSOH SrH-FRPPLW sFHnDrLR, D SrRgrDPPHr wLOO: Check out the code. Make changes.