Too often I've been sent some code to review without so much as a meaningful commit message. For most, that's not nearly enough to go on. When starting a code review I first need a couple of questions answered. What is the task? What was your thought process for solving it? Did you want feedback on any specific bit? Were there any arbitrary constraints I should know about?
How am I, as a reviewer meant to know if the code is good if I don't understand what it meant to do and the constraints on it? The more info you can give me upfront, the less time I try to understand what you're doing and the more time I can spend evaluating how well you've done it.
Heads up: As with any terse bit of advice, there will be exceptions of course, and subtleties and nuance that can't possibly be captured in a Byte of Wisdom. This has been what I've experienced, I'd love to hear yours in the comments too!
You can catch up with all the other bytes at http://bytesofwisdom.com/
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