Spyke
slrpnk.net

I am really happy when people are quite strict in code reviews, it makes me feel safer and I get to learn more.

Nothing worse than some silent approvals with no real feedback. What if I missed something obvious... and now it's merged.

To be fair, I also enjoy getting my grammar corrected. I'm juggling 3 languages and things can get messy.

92
jaderoreply
programming.dev

In that spirit, I will call attention to your first sentence, specifically the comma. In my opinion, that can be improved. One of three other constructions would be more appropriate:

  • I am really happy when people are quite strict in code reviews. It makes me feel safer and I get to learn more.
  • I am really happy when people are quite strict in code reviews, because it makes me feel safer and I get to learn more.
  • I am really happy when people are quite strict in code reviews; it makes me feel safer and I get to learn more.

The first of my suggested changes is favoured by those who follow the school of thought that argues that written sentences should be kept short and uncomplicated to make processing easier for those less fluent. To me, it sounds choppy or that you've omitted someone asking "Why?" after the first sentence.

Personally, I prefer the middle one, because it is the full expression of a complete state of mind. You have a feeling and a reason for that feeling. There is a sense in which they are inseparable, so not splitting them up seems like a good idea. The "because" explicitly links the feeling and reason.

The semicolon construction was favoured by my grade school teachers in the 1960s, but, as with the first suggestion, it just feels choppy. I tend to overuse semicolons, so I try to go back and either replace them with periods or restructure the sentences to eliminate them. In this particular case, I think the semicolon is preferable to both comma and period, but still inferior to the "because" construction.

I've clearly spent too much time hashing stuff out in writers' groups. :)

30
RiverGhostreply
slrpnk.net

This is what I live for. :D

I agree with most of that. In formal settings, I prefer full sentences with conjunctions; however, choppy sentences are the ones that often end up in my Lemmy comments.

7

That only makes sense. We are having a conversation, not creating literature.

7
lemmus.org

Strange, I get a mild hostility vibe from colleagues if I review too ambitiously.

6

Reviews have to be balanced to circumstance. There is a big difference between putting out the sales brochure and the notice on the bulletin board. Likewise in coding a cryptographic framework for general consumption and that little script to create personal slideshows based on how you've tagged your photos.

As a general rule, wider distributions, public distributions, and long-lived distributions need more ambitious reviews. If the distribution is wide, public, and permanent, then everything needs very detailed scrutiny.

I have found some success in starting with and occasionally revisiting review goals. This helps create and maintain some consistency in a process that is scaled to the task at hand.

2
partizle.com

Correcting the reviewer.
Notes: "should of" isn't valid, should implies a verb, of isn't a verb. I expect you meant "should have". Please recall this in future submissions.

15
wandermindreply
sopuli.xyz

They should of course keep that in mind, but it's not that "should" should always be followed by a verb directly. The problem is that "of" in this context is a mishearing/spelling of "have", so they should in this case have written it like that instead.

5

I would argue that "should of" is just a naive written rendition of the spoken contraction "should've". They are homophones, so it's a completely understandable error among those without the relevant education or background. I know only English and was in Grade 9 at a different school before someone corrected me.

1

Yeah, I learn so much from code reviews and they've saved me so much time from dumb mistakes I missed. I've also caught no shortage of bugs in other people's code that saved us all a stressful headache. It's just vastly easier to fix a bug before it merges than once it breaks a bunch of people.

7

I'm juggling 3 languages

We Americans like to forget that anyone might have any trouble understanding English especially in cases of polyglots.

I don't know which is your native tongue but from this comment it looks like you're doing a fine job.

5

Assuming you have competent leadership, then it wouldn't be merged if you missed something obvious. I guess you're saying that you want more positive reinforcement.

1
lemmy.world

I will correct both + your spelling because it drives me fucking nuts when I can't find a function or variable due to it being severely misspelled

55
lemy.lol

Not gonna lie, I have no idea what chexp is supposed to mean

2
marcosreply
lemmy.world

That never stopped a Unix programmer!

(But yeah, my comment was missing punctuation.)

2

Ohh! Thanks, I mean, I had already got the grammatical meaning, but I just wasn't sure what "chexp" was, I thought you were talking about some obscure Unix command... so it was just the same phrase all along, lol

*shakes fist at the sky*
Damn you, Unix people

2
local106.com

Correcting my code is helpful. The machine didn't know what I even meant. Computers are interesting and changing rapidly.

Correcting my grammar is an unsolicited English lesson from someone who already knew what I meant. English is not interesting or changing quickly.

39
lemmyinglyreply
lemm.ee

What if your grammar is that bad that people struggle to understand you?

I know someone who is incomprehensible most of the time. I have to ask probing questions just to vaguely understand what they're trying to communicate. I've politely told them more than once about the issue but they never try; they're not mentally challenged or anything, just an ass.

10
ludreply

Then they couldn't correct you.

2

I've never met a native speaker like that, but yeah I think they're the exception that proves the rule.

1
zerofkreply
lemm.ee

I read your comment twice, looking for any tiny mistake to fix. How thoughtless of you not to include any.

21
lemmy.world

Anybody who bitches about prescriptivism is just mad that their grammar sucks.

Edit: this always gets 'em crawling out of the woodwork

-1

Prescriptivism is mostly just an unprincipled mishmash of shibboleths someone pulled out of their rear end hundreds of years ago, classism, and knee-jerk reactions against language change.

For example - why do people distinguish less vs fewer to refer to countable vs uncountable nouns? Because someone wrote in 1770 that they thought that distinction was elegant, despite not actually reflecting the way English at the time was spoken.

Why is ain't "not a word"? Because it originated in the speech of poor people, and was used less commonly by rich people. People roll their eyes at new business-speak because it comes from rich, powerful people, but look down their nose at language innovations from poor hillbillies and other disfavored groups.

And you can find writings from old prescriptivists complaining about literally every change in the language, such as hating the new ambigious use of singular 'you' when 'thou' was perfectly good and unambiguous or hating phrases like 'very pleased'.

5

I use incorrect grammar all the time on Lemmy because I'm writing colloquially, comma splices are my biggest offense.

4
hemkoreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Brother you don't even remember what it does, how and why after 3 days

10

Of course, but because it is perfect, no one, not even myself, needs to fix/modify/extend/understand

/s

4

It should be normalized to kiss the furry femboy programmer who corrects your code as a thank you.

2