Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by someweirdperson 1330 days ago
> Keeping pull requests small typically leads to a more thorough review because it’s much easier to parse the changes and build a mental model.

Corollary, the practice that exists in some organizations or some peoples minds to change everything (code structure, names, formatting, ...) that doesn't match current definitions and/or personal taste as part of a change for some specific feature slows things down, and hides potential problems by covering the intended modification in the fog of the other changes.

Separation helps. Even for some intended changes, by splitting into incremental steps. Of course starting with N+1 requires a speedy review of N. Which requires N to be focused, to be easy to check.

If something needs a complete rewrite, that's a different story.