Crucible 2 Beta Insight (part 2) – Iterative code review

With a sweet new UI designed to make code review as easy as email, the new beta of Crucible 2 is packed with great features. The most revolutionary of which is the idea of iterative code review.

Crucible 2 – Iterative code review

Most code review processes are naturally iterative. First you write some code, then one of your peers reviews it only find some way to improve it, and then you code it up again, and repeat as necessary.
Although this process may take just a few minutes, it’s not unusual for reviews to include 2 or 3 revisions. That’s why Crucible 2 has made it simple to manage reviews throughout this iterative process:

• Outdated files – Any Gmail users out there will be familiar with the little pop-up message appearing whenever someone has added to the conversation.
  Similarly, Crucible will let you know when a new revision is available and let you include it in the review with a single click.
• Tracking as you go – As you move through a review, Crucible automatically tracks which files and comments you have already read or reviewed. This will reset as new revisions or comments are added.



• Revision slider – One of the most obvious things you notice when reviewing source is the revision slider. Not to be confused with the London Tube map, this slider shows you the number of revision included in the review along with the number of comments made for each.



• Comparing revisions – If you want to compare different verions of a file, simply move the end-points of the slider. The diffs will automatically reload with comments inline.
• Comments follow revision – Comments made to any lines that move or get removed in a future revision will be annotated in the gutter for easy reference.



• Filter files to speed up reviews – By filtering for new content “since last completed review”, you only see new changes and comments for revised files.

Iterative code review makes it simple for teams to collaborate around code changes in order to ensure the highest code quality. Next time, I’ll cover more the details of Crucible 2’s new Jira integration.

Give us your feedback

Download the public beta of Crucible 2 and check out the Crucible 2 Beta Release Notes for more information.
You can also check out these updated public instances:

• http://fisheye1.atlassian.com – SourceForge CVS repositories
• http://fisheye6.atlassian.com – Apache Subversion Repositories

Kick the tires yourself and let us know what you think.