
Ask HN: Where can I get a whole project reviewed? - costein
Often when learning a new programming language I am be interested in getting an expert review on a non-trivial project. I looked at using code review stack exchange but it seems to only be used for small snippets of code. Happy to pay for a review as I recognize reviewing a whole project by an expert is unlikely to be free. Anyone know of sites which do this?
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PopeDotNinja
That's a really good question. I've found it's really hard to tap into a
senior developer's attention span for any sort of short term work that isn't
something they are already working on. To get some non-trivial insight, you're
not only asking them for the work you're specifically looking for, but also
the context switching necessary to level up on your code base and the work
necessary to prepare whatever output you'd be happy with. In some sense, it's
like asking someone to live in your home long enough to develop their own
thoughts on how they like your home, and what changes they might make. It's
hard problem to solve.

Another approach to consider is simply not worrying about it too much, only
worrying about making serious quality improvements when the project starts to
get traction. I once asked a senior engineer for their thoughts on how to test
a very specific type of coding approach, and their response was that it didn't
really matter until the code was important enough that it needed to be taken
seriously.

For me, I'm banging on an Elixir app this weekend. I'm intentionally moving
slowly on it because I'm working on refining my approach to how I structure
and test the code. In many ways, I find going super deep on a fairly small
thing makes it easier for me to find patterns that I'd like to replicate else
where. So I'd say my approach to finding code review is to simply budget time
to become my own reviewer. Another benefit of this approach is that I often
find I develop thoughts that are efficient to communicate, and then I'm able
to share them with coworkers as the opportunity arises. My better ideas tend
to start getting adopted by others, and then they get better at reviewing my
code.

For Elixir, I've also found people who are interested in pairing on the Elixir
Slack channel. [1] Consider looking around with your language or framework of
choice to see if there's a community where you can find people interested in
pairing with you.

[1] [https://elixir-lang.slack.com](https://elixir-lang.slack.com)

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meowface
Obviously paying a professional will get you the best results, but otherwise,
you can also try to post a link to a GitHub repo in various IRC channels
popular with programmers. It can be a fun or even ego-boosting exercise for
programmers to "redline" code in their spare time, so you'll probably find
some willing to take a look for free.

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ezekg
This actually sounds like a cool business idea to me. I wonder if there’s a
market for code-reviews-as-a-service, where you match people up with
programmers based on the bid amount.

~~~
saamm
I know of at least one person who offers a code review service (specifically
for Python).

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swatcoder
I loathe being so blatantly self-promotey on HN, but since you asked: this is
specifically a thing I do.

Skim my profile and follow up by email if you want to figure something out.

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hluska
One free way would be to find a strictly governed open source project in the
language/framework and start contributing fixes. You'll get practical code
reviews, meet people in the community and give back to open source.

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ddorian43
Go on those freelancing sites ? You should be able to find someone with xxxx+
hours in your language/framework and invite to your project.

~~~
costein
I've been on some before but never seen a code review job post, but yeah
that's a good idea and I guess that would work.

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wingerlang
I've seen some of the 'high profile' people within my tech stack offer code
review. You could find someone who has a blog or does talks in your given area
and see if this is something they actively advertise (or just ask them).

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ha470
The only service I've seen for this is
[https://www.pullrequest.com/](https://www.pullrequest.com/). Seems more for
teams but it may work.

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eip
I would consider doing it. What's it worth to you?

~~~
costein
Hard to say, which is why I was kind of hoping for a site dedicated to this
kind of thing. ddorian43 is right though, I suppose I could just use a
freelance site.

