Code Review

In many programming departments, code review comes with the territory. The author of a piece of code offers it up for group consumption. Participants sit down together to read the code line by line, looking for inefficiencies, wrong assumptions, unchecked errors, and better algorithms.

In theory, code review takes place in a positive atmosphere of camaraderie, with the implicit assumption that no one writes perfect code every time. But you can surely imagine situations in which comments might get brutal. In practice, most programmers host code review with fear and loathing.

So let’s do some code review. Let’s pick an innocent, naive rookie and rip his pitiful efforts to shreds. Let’s examine some code that has been seen by millions and see if it’s really up to snuff. Let’s review REMLINE, the program that wouldn’t die. To introduce the code, I’ll turn the floor over to the owner of the code, Bruce McKinney, circa 1987. The reviewers are Joe Hacker, Jane Sensible, and their manager, Mary Hardhead.