Compare · Do this to my work · it acts
Element 110
Go through its changes one by one: keep or reject.
diff review · accept or reject each
First known
From a history
≤2000Word's AutoFormat scans the document and suggests formatting changes you accept or reject one by one.
See also: Dependabot pull requests, 2017.
From a book of Aug 2000 on Word 2000.
Dated by a reputable history or a participant's own account. The source.
- ReadingValue
Specimen № 110 — operate freely
Keep or reject each edit (y or n). Read them first.
Fig. 110 — Review
000 readings · idle
Anatomy of Review
- 01Lay out
- You
- Sees the changes, one at a time.
- It
- Breaks its work into pieces small enough to judge alone.
- 02Keep
- You
- Keeps one.
- It
- Applies just that change.
- 03Reject
- You
- Rejects one.
- It
- Leaves the original standing, and the other changes untouched.
- 04Accept all
- You
- Waves the rest through.
- It
- Applies everything, judged or not.
Phases light as the specimen above registers them. The dark ones are the ones it can't sense.
Lineage
Unix diff (1974) showed the difference between two files as a list of changes. Word processors added tracked changes over the next two decades, and code review made keeping or rejecting each change a daily habit. Agents made it the main way people receive work.
Under delegation
Mutates
- Survives
- Mutates
- Dissolves
Review was for colleagues: one person checking another's work, at a person's pace. Agents produce changes faster than anyone can read them, which turns review from a courtesy into the bottleneck, and makes accept all the most dangerous button on the screen.
Down the Compare column
Read down and Compare gets heavier: each step is the same act, on a machine that keeps track of more.
Bodies
The act stays put while the hardware changes. These are some of the forms Review takes.
- diff review
- accept or reject each