The CodeStream Blog

The more our team used our CodeStream IDE extension for discussing and reviewing code, the more frustrating or inconvenient it became when we did have to leave our IDE for some development related task. So in addition to building our proprietary collaboration tools we also started working on integrating tasks into the IDE that previously required switching windows. But CodeStream is not the only VS Code extension that helps improve productivity by allowing you to stay in your IDE. Below are 5 other extensions our team uses to avoid window and context switches.

The headline of this article was conceived of by one of our engineers, @BrianCanzanella, during a brainstorming session to come up with a tag-line for CodeStream’s light-weight, pre-commit, pre-pull request (or pre-merge request) code review functionality. Many of us thought it was brilliant given all the frustrations developers voice over code review but, for whatever reason, it didn’t perform that well when used in the banner ad below. 

We wholeheartedly over the top agree that everyone should “review early and often” and “small reviews improve quality and avoid rework”, but not with necessarily equating code reviews with pull requests. Solving for more frequent reviews by suggesting smaller pull requests (or merge requests) reminds me of a famous quote (likely inaccurately) attributed to Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

More collaboration. Better transfer of knowledge. Increased team transparency. Earlier code reviews. These things are helpful to all developers on a team, but can be especially valuable to new hires. Here are four ways CodeStream accelerates onboarding.

I just received and reviewed the latest iteration of the Coding Sans annual State of Software Development report. It’s a small annual event I actually look forward to for a couple reasons. First, I’m a data-junkie so any well-done pdf with interesting data will get my attention. But more importantly, I find their report consistently reaffirms a sense of purpose... CodeStream’s purpose. Let me explain.

CodeStream’s GitLab integration for Intellij IDEA, WebStorm, PyCharm and all JetBrains IDEs is now publicly available. The integration, which works with both GitLab Cloud and GitLab Self-Managed, lets you create, review, and merge GitLab merge requests without ever leaving your IDE. All with full source-tree and full file access, your favorite keybindings, and all the code intelligence embedded in your development environment.