There... I said it... and I've done it again, I've made another big-assed bold statement that I am sure will get flamed in some small corder of the universe. Thankfully, I'll be too busy with my head somewhere else trying to unlock the mysteries of why people think the way the do about code maintainability. Which means I'll be writing this blog article and totally oblivious to the little flame war that I expect will erupt and threaten to eventually engulf the entire universe if I don't manage to quell the flame with a good well reasoned commentary! (Phew!! The universe really dodged a bullet there, let me tell you!!)... Where was I?
So the issue (oh yes, I have SO many) is that I really dislike hearing people say things like:
"...this is good maintainable code..."
or even worse:
"...this code is Un-Maintainable!!..."
I happen to be a believer that thanks to the almighty Uncle Bob and others who brought into the light Agile and Refactoring and all that really wonderful stuff, we can maintain ALL code. Yes, I have found my true coder's calling and decided to preach to the unwashed masses that you who are the unbelieving lost binary souls can also learn that you don't have to throw out your code, just because someone has been spreading such a heathenous word as "Un...Maintainable..." (you may hiss and jeeer every time you hear that word spoken!).
A place for me to vent my spleen about processes, methodologies, philosophies, mythologies, tools, and systems which relate to the engineering of software.
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Monday, 6 February 2012
Is “Code Smell” still a useful metaphor, or has misuse of the term subverted its meaning?
I've come across some comments (E.g.: here, here, here, here & here) over the last couple of years that decry the use of the phrase "Code Smell" and I've been wondering what the reasoning is for those who dislike it. I first encountered this term when I read Martin Fowler's Refactoring book back in 2000, yet it's only in the last year or two that I've heard any complaint about the use of the phrase.
I asked this same question on Programmers.SE recently, and then went on to answer my own question. I'll admit to a little narcissistic pleasure in having written my own answer. So much so that I thought the topic would make a good blog article! :-P
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