Mastermind: Introduction to Code Review for Digital Humanities

Code review is similar to a spell check for coding and helps ensure that code is well-written, efficient, and easy to maintain. Software developers use code reviews as a core practice, where code is subject to both human and machine feedback.

Although automated feedback tools can detect some errors, they fall short in assessing certain aspects of software quality such as code readability. This is where code reviews prove to be particularly useful. The invaluable input from human reviewers ensures that the code is written in a way that promotes easy comprehension and reuse by others, leading to software that is sustainable and reusable in the long run.

Code review can be especially useful for digital humanists who work on software projects related to humanities research. This is because such projects can often involve complex and diverse datasets, which require careful consideration when designing and implementing software. Code reviews can help ensure that the software is designed and written in a way that is both efficient and effective for handling these types of data. Digital humanities projects are often collaborative efforts involving multiple researchers and software developers, code reviews can help to ensure that everyone is working together towards a common goal.

This event is part of the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) Fellowship programme and supported by the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (UCLDH).

Aim: The aim of this mastermind event is to provide a forum for DH researchers and research software developers (RSE) and software developers to collaborate, share experiences, and support each other in their research endeavours. Specifically, the event will focus on understanding what code review is as well as discussing strategies for reusing software and tools.

Format: The event will be a half-day workshop, consisting a combination of presentations, and discussions. Participants will have opportunities to engage with each other, share their experiences, and discuss challenges and solutions.

Objectives: By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to:

• Identify best practices for reusing software and tools in DH research.
• Explore the role of RSEs and software developers in digital humanities research and discuss ways to involve them in DH communities.
• Build a network of peers who can offer ongoing support and advice.

See the Eventbrite page for the full programme, and to register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mastermind-introduction-to-code-review-for-digital-humanities-tickets-626081856687