Welcome to the fourth edition of Bear Tracks, the newsletter about peer code reviews, Code Collaborator, and other tidbits from Smart Bear Software.
In this issue, you'll learn more about our soon-to-be released Code Collaborator version 5.0 and how you can get your hands on it! We also reveal how code review and static analysis are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary processes that can work together to ensure better software. This newsletter also introduces a great blog, Engineering Game Development, by Lee Winder. And be sure to read our interview with Paul Jimenez, our QA manager and featured bear!
As always, if you have feedback, requests, or if you just want to say "hi," be sure to drop us a line.
Happy reading!
-- Hannah Jung
Table of Contents
2. Code Review and Static Analysis: Competition or Complementary?
3. Featured Blog: Engineering Game Development
4. Meet the Bears: Paul Jimenez
The Code Collaborator 5.0 beta is going well and will end with the release of the 5.0 production version. Our latest version introduces a myriad of much-requested features; some of the big ones include PDF, image and URL reviews, user groups, enhanced notification control, and the ability to compare any two versions of a file. You can see a list of all of them on our website, complete with screenshots!
It's not too late to try 5.0 out free to experience the new features yourself, then tell us what you think about it!
Code Review and Static Analysis: Competition or Complementary?
by jason cohen
Whenever I talk about peer code review, someone always wants to pit static code analysis tools against human review. Which is better? They assume that because we sell a peer review tool we hate automation.
But that's just not true. You need both. Anything you can automate... should be automated!
But there are certain questions that static analysis can never answer - you need an actual human to evaluate the code, and a code review tool like Code Collaborator makes that process a whole lot easier. To see a list of those questions and learn more, check out this article.
Code review tools can also help you interpret the output from a static analysis tool, which is especially helpful when a static analysis tool creates a huge amount of "false positive" output. Check out this article for a time-saving tip on how to use code review tools to best deal with the output of a static analysis tool.
Featured Blog: Engineering Game Development
Our featured blog in this issue is from Lee Winder, who writes the blog Engineering Game Development. In I'll Show You Mine If..., Lee argues that code reviews are worth doing, and not just for finding bugs. The reasons include sharing domain knowledge, cross-training, and more. Lee also includes some anti-patterns to watch out for in code review, and how to deal with them.
Paul Jimenez, also known as PJ, is the Senior QA Manager at Smart Bear and quite the popular bear. If you've ever called our Austin office for a Code Collaborator question or problem, chances are you've heard his friendly voice. Get to know the man on the other side of the line.
Describe a typical day at the office.
A typical day at the office involves one or more of: writing bugs...er, features, fixing bugs, figuring out how to better test our software, wrangling with our Continuous Integration server, or putting on my other hat of System Administrator and wrangling with the bug tracker, the Xen install, various hardware, or the phone system.
Read more...
Join us for a webinar
If you're interested in seeing Code Collaborator in action, we have two webinars scheduled in June. On June 17, see how Code Collaborator takes the pain out of your peer code reviews. On June 30, we'll showcase the cool new features in v5.0. Or, check our schedule for future webinars.
Smart Bear Blog
Like our newsletter? Read our Smart Bear blog, which is dedicated to Code Collaborator how-to's, tips for your own code reviews, and random musings from Smart Bear employees.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions, suggestions, or comments regarding the newsletter or just about anything! Got a funny story during your code reviews? Please share it with us.
Feature Your Blog Here
Do you have a blog? Blog about us and we'll send you a free Smart Bear shirt. And we might even link to your blog from our website.
