CS 204: Software Design

Code reviews Thursday and Friday, January 21-22.
Revision due 8:30AM Wednesday, January 27.

Preparing for the code reviews

We'll discuss the code reviews in class on Wednesday, Jan 20. In brief, code reviews tend to be somewhat stressful for the person being reviewed, so we all need to take steps to make the process collegial and constructive. We need to point out what's good in each other's code, as well as providing some ideas on where to make some improvements.

In preparation for your code review, please do the following.

  1. Study the programs of the other students in your code review group. Spend maybe 20-30 minutes per program, which should give you enough time to figure out what you find good, confusing, remarkable, cool, etc. about the program.

  2. Write comments for each of the programs in your group (including your own). Assemble all your comments for all the programs into a single document (probably 1-2 pages), and bring enough printouts of your document to give each person, including Jeff, a copy. Your comments don't have to be polished, but they should be polite and constructive. For guidance on what constitute polite and constructive comments, consult the golden rule. That is, think about what kinds of feedback you will be happy to receive if your goal is to improve your programming skill.

    Specifically, for each program:

    • Briefly note a couple things you particularly like about the program.
    • Pick two or three aspects of the program that you think could be improved. Describe each of these aspects clearly enough that the rest of us will be able to find the relevant code, and then provide a brief suggestion of how you think it should be improved.
  3. Come to your code review session in CMC 306 on time, and ready to offer your comments to the other students verbally as well as on paper.

Revising your program

Based on the feedback you receive at your code review, you will revise your program and hand it in again by class time next Wednesday, the 27th. Please submit it in a folder called rssrevision.

Grades

Your grade for the RSS assignment will be based on the quality of your revised program, the quality of your participation in the code review, and by your responsiveness in the revision to the feedback you received at the code review.