830: GitHub and Code Reviews with Sarah Vessels

Scott and Wes talk with GitHub’s Sarah Vessels about the ins and outs of code reviews, their critical role in collaborative development, and tips for making your reviews more effective.

Show Notes

• 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
• 00:59 What is a code review?
  • How to review code effectively: A GitHub staff engineer’s philosophy
• 04:18 Strategies for an effective code review processes
• 06:59 Should you test and fix in the same pull request?
• 07:57 How to ask for code reviews
• 12:12 Feature flags and their role in code management
  • flipper
  • scientist
  • scientist - JS
• 20:03 Who should do code reviews?
• 23:34 Should you review your own code?
• 25:04 Brought to you by Sentry.io
• 25:29 Code comments vs pull requests
• 27:35 Dealing with egos in the code review process
• 30:18 What automations are essential?
  • project-pull-mover
• 34:35 Underutilized tools
  • GitHub Protips: Tips, tricks, hacks, and secrets from Sarah Vessels
• 36:25 Commit strategies and squash
• 39:30 GitHub’s branching system
• 41:14 Git gone wrong
• 42:30 What is the correct way to merge into main?
• 43:47 What was it like working on GitHub Sponsors?
  • GitHub Sponsors
  • thanks.dev
• 46:58 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

• Sarah: https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

Shameless Plugs

• Sarah: https://github.com/sponsors

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