[theme-reviewers] Plugin Review (Yes, meant for the Theme Review List)

[Otto]

On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 10:48 AM, Ryan Frankel <ryan.frankel at gmail.com> wrote:
> All,
>
> I am more worried that I will submit my plugin and have some glaring security/implementation issue in my code.  While plugin users may be able to notice functional bugs I am not sure they will notice implementation/security/coding errors.   I know when I was working on/submitting my theme I learned a TON from the review process and I would hate to submit something that had errors.
>
> Ryan

The problem is that code review is *hard*.

See, reviewing a theme is relatively easy by comparison. You have a
fixed set of things that a theme must do, and mostly easily
recognizable things that a theme should do, and a few things a theme
should never do. It's a much more limited scope, even though it is
code as well. It has a defined structure, layout, set of files, etc.
Sure it *can* do anything, but most don't. Or shouldn't.

A plugin, on the other hand, can do anything at all. Very limited
amount of required structure there. File layouts and such are entirely
up to the author. It can hook in anywhere, and frequently does. So
reviewing a plugin takes an enormous amount of time and effort. Too
much for volunteers, basically.

-Otto