Show HN: CodeReview – An iPad app for reviewing, editing, merging pull requests | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: CodeReview – An iPad app for reviewing, editing, merging pull requests

codereview.io

36 pointsjacksonh24 comments

If this was free + IAP I would install it. Maybe the free version supports 1 repo or (following the GitHub model) unlimited public repos.

I think $20 is a great price point (honestly I think you have room to grow) but you need to give people an opportunity to experience the benefits of the product.

Yeah, I actually joked about doing a version that would randomly insert meow in your comments (with increasing density the more you use it) for free.

With WWDC looming there is a chance trials might get announced. If not I'll probably do something.

I think randomly added 'meow' and other animal noises would be pretty funny. Might actually be a disincentive to paying for those who can laugh a little

I haven't heard any rumours about trials in iOS for ages, has it come up again recently?

I don't mean to be abrasive, but landing page could not be less informative. I'm a full-time developer and a big believer in code review, but I have no interest in downloading the app based on the website -- I don't know what it is, really. I think you are going to convert a lot better by actually explaining why I should download the app, rather than just providing a link. Why is this better than current tools? Does this integrate with Github? Bitbucket?

Yeah I agree. I'm going to put more effort into the site eventually. In the short term there are details on http://blog.codereview.io and on the actual App Store page ( http://tinyurl.com/codereview-appstore ).

To directly answer your questions: it is GitHub only. I see the main benefit vs other tools is a streamlined and focused workflow for reviewing and collaborating on pull requests. Also the iPad form factor is a nice change of pace vs reviewing on your computer.

I've always found code review to be incredibly valuable. I remember a long time ago reading that NASA studied a bunch of different development methodologies and found code review to be the most effective at reducing defects. However, we already sit in front of our computers too much, and its hard to shift mindsets from coding to editing.

The iPad seemed like a good alternative to reviewing code on your computer. You can get away from your desk, and change your mindset.

There's an interesting paper from a few years back looking at software defect incidence in Windows Vista and trying to figure out what models did best at predicting error-prone modules.

Turns out, in that case, organizational structure had better precision and recall than any of five other models (code churn, cycolmatic complexity, test coverage, etc.)

"The Influence of Organizational Structure on Software Quality: An Empirical Case Study" -- http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/70535/tr-2008-11.pdf

This is awesome. Thanks. Love this kind of stuff. If you are interested there is a book "Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It" that takes a scientific approach to evaluating software practices.

I've been using this since the beta. The entire code of my startup is on GitHub so it really helps to be able to monitor and triage incoming changes quickly.

The app itself is still missing some things for my particular workflow: I'd like to have visibility on incoming code that's not part of pull requests. Like simple pushes to branches.

I'd also have the possibility to unsubscribe from repos directly from the app.

I've been playing around with it for few minutes and it looks promising. Few things I think it would be nice for the app to have:

- Comment preview.

- Symbol row on top of keyboard (such as ` and Markdown symbols.)

- Font selection for code view.

- Some indication of which line is currently being tapped in code view.

Also, I couldn't get the app to list pull requests from a repo with Issues disabled. A bug, maybe?

Thanks sirn. The top two things are on the roadmap. Especially preview.

Regarding font selection, which fonts would you like? I'll have to bundle the fonts with the app, so I'd like to hear what people are into. Right now it uses Meslo for source and Avenir everywhere else.

GitHub recently fixed the unable to fetch PR updates when issues are disabled thing. You aren't using GitHub Enterprise are you?

Source Code Pro and Inconsolata-dz would be nice. :-)

I'm definitely not using GitHub Enterprise. From what I've seen in the connection log, pull requests from repo with issues disabled are completely missing.

Also thanks for the app! I can now finally do a code review on a toilet. Yay!

OK, I'll definitely look into it. They literally just enabled this a couple weeks ago, so I didn't get to test much.

If you want, feel free to email me jacksonh@gmail.com with any other issues or details on this one (especially if its a public repo).

I'd like to suggest a little more information about what CodeReview is.

The web page doesn't give me any real hints. The App Store listing only shows in the title that it's a GitHub-only thing.

I don't suggest overloading with unnecessary detail, but it would be nice to know something before spending $20.

Perhaps double the size of the screenshot, so people can see the app features more clearly?

Yeah, part of the problem is they are all retina. Lots more screenshots here: http://tinyurl.com/codereview-appstore and on the blog: http://blog.codereview.io

Probably more important to have that on the product page, yeah? I looked at the landing page, couldn't see what was going and had a nagging animation to install the app before being given sufficient information on what it was. Not a great experience.

> You must be at least 17 years old to download this app.

Why is a code review app rated as 17+?

Basically because you can access external web content. Either that or maybe I clicked the wrong box somewhere, but I'm pretty sure all apps that let you browse the web get the 17+

Interesting. It looks like "Unrestricted Web Access" is what causes it. Chrome is in the same boat, but for some reason Facebook and Twitter don't have the same requirements even though they allow access to web content via links.

I'm not sure if this would work for your app, but maybe you could restrict access to just github.com? I'd also second a video or something more insightful on the landing page of the app's website.

Add an about page, more screenshots, a bit about the team. Ya know, salesmanship.

Does this only support GitHub? Any plans to add BitBucket?

Right now its GitHub. Definitely BitBucket is something I'll look at in the future. Internally everything is abstracted away to support different backends. But I want to make sure I totally nail GitHub before taking on another provider.

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