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On 06/03/2015 02:43 PM, Boris Pavlovic wrote:
> 
> I don't believe even my self, because I am human and I make mistakes. 
> My goal on the PTL position is to make such process that stops "human"
> mistakes before they land in master. In other words  everything should be
> automated and pre not post checked. 
> 

I used to believe exactly this some time ago - but I don't anymore. Lack
of bugs is not what makes good software (tho you don't want too many of
them :) ).

Focusing on bugs and automation to avoid them is misguided, and so is
the idea that code review is there to spot bugs before they land in
tree. Code reviewers should make sure that the abstractions are solid,
the code is modular, readable and maintainable - exactly the stuff
machines (still?) can't do (*).

This was one of the arguments against doing exactly what you propose in
Nova - we want the same (high?) level of reviews in all parts of the
code, and strong familiarity with the whole.

But I think it's failing - Nova is just too big - and there is not
enough skilled people to do the work without a massive scope reduction.

I am not sure how to fix it TBH (tho my gut feeling says we should
loosen not tighten the constraints).

N.

(*) Machines can run automated tests to find bugs, but tests are also
software that needs reviewing, maintaining and testing... so you want to
make sure you spend your finite resources catching the right kind of bugs.