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How to Find the Stinky Parts of Your Code (Part IV)by@mcsee
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How to Find the Stinky Parts of Your Code (Part IV)

by Maximiliano ContieriNovember 17th, 2020
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Part I can be found here, Part II, Part III is here and Part V Here. This is part IV. How to Find the Stinky Parts of Your Code (Part IV) How to find the stinky parts of your code (Part I) Part I: The road to programming hell is paved with global variables. Part V: The code smells are just hints of something that might be wrong. They are not rigid rules. We see several symptoms and situations that make us doubt the quality of our development.

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Are we done on code smells? Guess not.

We see several symptoms and situations that make us doubt the quality of our development.

Let's look at some possible solutions.

Most of these smells are just hints of something that might be wrong. They are not rigid rules.

This is part IV. Part I can be found here, Part II here , Part III is here and Part V Here.

Code Smell 16 - Ripple Effect

Small changes yield unexpected problems.

Photo by Jack Tindall on Unsplash

Problems

  • Coupling

Coupling: The One and Only Software Designing Problem

Solutions

  1. Decouple.
  2. Cover with tests.
  3. Refactor and isolate what is changing.
  4. Depend on interfaces.

Examples

  • Legacy Systems

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

It is not easy to detect problems before they happen. Mutation Testing and root cause analysis of single points of failures may help.

Tags

  • Legacy

Conclusion

There are multiple strategies to deal with Legacy and coupled systems. We should deal with this problem before it explodes under our eyes.

More info

Architecture is the tension between coupling and cohesion.

Neal Ford

40+ Thought-Provoking Software Engineering Quotes

Code Smell 17 - Global Functions

Discouraged by Object-Oriented Programmings, Many mixed languages support it. And developers abuse them.

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

Problems

  • Coupling
  • Readability
  • Maintainability
  • Testability

Solutions

  1. Wrap the function in a context object.

Examples

  • External Resources Access, Database access, Time and Operating System resources.

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

Many modern languages avoid them. For the permissive ones, scope rules can be applied and automatically checked.

Tags

  • Global

Conclusion

Structured programming considers global functions harmful. Yet, we can observe some bad practices cross paradigm boundaries.

Relations

Singleton and Classes are global points of access.

More Info

The road to programming hell is paved with global variables.

Steve McConnell

Code Smell 18 - Static Functions

Yet another global access coupled with laziness.

Photo by Alex Azabache on Unsplash

Problems

  • Coupling
  • Testability
  • Protocol Overloading
  • Cohesion

Solutions

  1. Class Single Responsibility Principle is to create instance. Honor it.
  2. Delegate method to instance.
  3. Create stateless objects. Don't call them helpers.

Examples

  • Static class methods
  • Static attributes

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

We can enforce a policy to avoid static methods (all class methods but constructors).

Tags

  • Global
  • Libraries

Conclusion

Class are globals disguised. Polluting their protocol with "library methods" breaks cohesion and generates coupling. We should extract static with refactorings.

Relations

More info

There is no programming problem that can't be solved with one more level of indirection.

John McCarthy

Code Smell 19 - Optional Arguments

Disguised as a friendly shortcut is another coupling smell.

Problems

  • Coupling
  • Unexpected results
  • Side effects
  • Ripple Effect
  • In languages with optional arguments but limited to basic types, we need to set a flag and add an accidental IF (another smell).

Solutions

  1. Make arguments explicit.
  2. All function calls must have same arity.
  3. Use Named Parameters if your language supports them.

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

Detection is easy if language supports optional arguments.

Tags

  • Optional
  • Laziness

Conclusion

Be explicit. Favor readability over shorter (and more coupled) function call.

More info

The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late.

Seymour Cray

Code Smell 20: Premature Optimization

Planning ahead of time needs a crystal ball no developer has.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Problems

  • Coupling
  • Testability
  • Readability
  • YAGNI

Solutions

  1. Create great models and bijections first.
  2. Create a conclusive benchmark once the model is working.
  3. Design for Performance.
  4. Use Test Driven Development technique. It always favors the simplest solution.

Examples

  • Weird data structures
  • Caches
  • Singletons

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

This is a design smell so it can not be detected by mechanical tools (yet).

Tags

  • Premature Optimization
  • Antipattern

Conclusion

Defer performance decisions until functional models are mature enough.

Donald Knuth created/compiled the best/fastest algorithms and data structures. With great wisdom he warned us of abuse. Why do we think we are smarter than him?

More info

Programmers waste enormous amounts of time worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. 

Donald Knuth

Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

Donald Knuth

And that's it for now.

But rest assured, more smells will come.