The Joel on Software Discussion Group

I am performing an internal code review on a 75,000 line program across ~200 files.

I am finding it difficult remembering which blocks of code I have looked at, and it's difficult to be systematic with a lot of this code.

Is there a text editor where I can persistantly mark large chunks of lines of code to note I've reviewed them? I need the markers to remain even if I close my editor and re-open it.

does this feature exist anywhere?


thanks all

Do you need syntax highlighting for a certain language?

The languages are .NET, Python and a bit of PHP, but I can live without syntax highlighting if necessary.

You could use wordpad...

eclipse

.NET isn't a language, it's a platform/runtime.  C#, Visual Basic, Ada, Fortran, Cobol, etc.  Those are language...

Anyways.

I recommend Visual SlickEdit.

If you need a cheaper editor, try Ed.

- Nate.

How would you have the blocks of code delineated from non-reviewed code to indicate they have been reviewed? You mention markers - would this be in the gutter or did you have something else in mind?

What would be the most efficient way for you to select a block of code and mark it as reviewed?

Sincerely interested.
Aaron

What is the end-result of reviewing the code?

Would you want to perhaps "tag" the reviewed code with different, configurable and possibly multiple status or action flags:
* refactor
* discard
* reviewed
* fix
* TTD [task detail]
* security risk
* keep
* reuse
* bug
etc?

please feel free to email me directly if you would like to discuss this at length.

Aaron

How about Word/Write/etc/? They all let you change the color of text and save the file...

Failing that, convert it to HTML or something.

The point is that it can't be done with plain text - you need to add extra information to the file. Once you make this leap the rest is easy.

75000 / 200 = 375 LOC per file. Can't you just do it file by file, and as you finish a file move it to another directory or rename it ".done" or something?

I think its funny how many people responded who obviously didn't read your question.

What about just using some sort of comment notation?

If it's C++, you could prefix all comments with four slashes '////' and then write some primitive parser to go through all of the files, extract the comments preceded by your notation, and have the parser record the filename, etc.

Or, you could do the markup with Doxygen's notation, and then  you'd have a bunch of pretty graphs showing the class relationships with your comments annotating your concerns. Besides, if you're reviewing 75K worth of lines, Doxygen may be quite useful in gaining an understanding of the class heirarchy, etc.
http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

Come on, admit it!  The OP's request is 100% reasonable, and there's apparently nothing on the market - free or not - that does it.

I love flat files, don't get me wrong...  But I think we're BEYOND the point where source code needs to become smarter than a flat file can support.

This is one example, I'm sure there a loads more.

Thanks all.

In the end I started using the macro feature of my text editor to add a prefix (/**/) to each line of python and php code (the .net components can wait) I checked.

I updated my build scripts to copy the code to a temporary folder with all prefixes removed so it would still compile.

In any case, my manager decided to print 20,000 lines of  the code in Times New Roman (not even a fixed width font!). The printer ran out after 3/4 of a ream of paper.

I want to cry :(

If anyone else would like to chime in with a response to the questions I posed, please feel free. Obviously this applies primarily to development environments.

If the OP would like to, it would be much appreciated also.

Aaron

If you are reviewing the code to see if it will work correctly, then for heaven's sake, stop and add unit tests.

If this is simply to view the code so that it's efficient (no poor loops, excessive string concatenation or wasted objects) then good luck!