Drupal, as a project, is always moving, changing, and improving from version to version. This happens when hundreds of developers work on these improvements, test them, review the changes, and work towards a well written and designed solution. The detailed reviews take longer for features to land in drupal but they are more well thought out, more well written, and documented in a much more usable fashion.
Patch reviewers is something drupal can always use more of and it's a fantastic place for members of the church to serve others (a big part of being the church) in the drupal community and give back to a project that has given so much to us.
If you think you aren't technical enough or can't because you don't know how to program that's just not true. Anyone can review patches. If you are a developer there is an added bonus. You're development will get better. Your skills will increase. And, you'll help others while you are doing it.
If you are interested and willing to review patches let's start by looking at some resources.
- Drupal Core Diaries: The 6-pass patch review
- Drupal 7 Patches Needing Review
- HowTo: test a patch and make a difference
- Coding Standards
- Writing Secure Code
If you aren't a developer there is still room to review patches. Many patches contain documentation within them that needs to be reviewed. For example, this patch adding a weight system to drupal_add_js contains large comment blocks describing how to use this feature. It needs to be reviewed, be readable, and conform to Doxygen formatting. Another area that can benefit from non-developer reviews is usability. There are a number of issues for usability improvement that can be see here.
When I first started reviewing patches I started by hanging back and reading the reviews other developers preformed on patches. Especially those of drupalers like webchick, Dries, and catch who are excellent reviewers. Then I slowly started adding my own in where it was something constructive. This is something any of us can start to do. If you spend a half hour a week reviewing just a few patches it's a great way to give back and read some great code which can make us better at what we do the rest of the time.
Comments
Thanks
Thanks for posting this MF. It is my intention to be more active in this area. I have occasionally looked into this and did a bit over at the Gnome project where they called it Bug Triageing. That made it sound a little less intimidating for a non-developer like myself. The project I was working with was also a lot smaller. Something that drew me in further was that they had a "karma-like" system that tracked your participation and you were rewarded by a number that was generated as a result of a formula against the types of participation you provided.
What sort of things does the Drupal project do to encourage patch reviewing? I'm not saying I need it, but making a bit of a game out of it drew me in and encouraged me to remember to participate. Patch reviewing can be pretty thankless so a little encouragement is welcome. :-)
With that in mind, maybe we as a church group, could do something to generate a bit of participation like a Drupal Church Group bug triage day where we could look over bugs together for an hour and then have some experienced people to come check with on issues as we get sent out to look over things. This would get a few people ramped up in experience pretty quickly and give a good chance to network as a group for this purpose. I'd be interested in organizing something like this if their is enough interest.