Code Smell 38 - Abstract Names

Avoid too abstract names. Names should have real world meaning

Problems

• Implemental Naming

• Meaningless names

• Broken MAPPER and Bijection to real world entities.

Solutions

1. Choose meaningful names.

2. Find metaphors.

3. Avoid words like abstract, base, generic, helper etc.

4. Use rules for naming.

Sample Code

Wrong

	<?
	final class MeetingsCollection {}
	final class AccountsComposite {}
	final class NotesArray {}
	final class LogCollector {}
	abstract class AbstractTransportation {}

view raw abstractNames.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Right

	<?
	final class Schedule {}
	final class Portfolio {}
	final class NoteBook {}
	final class Journal {}
	final class Vehicle {}

view raw realNames.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Detection

We can set up policies and rules warning for certain words like base, abstract, helper, manager, object etc.

Tags

• Naming

Conclusion

Finding names is the last thing we should do on our designs. Unless we have a clear business understanding, good names emerge at the end after defined behavior and protocol boundaries.

Relations

Code Smell 22 - Helpers

Maxi Contieri ・ Nov 12 '20

#oop #helpers #codenewbie #beginners

Code Smell 25 - Pattern Abusers

Maxi Contieri ・ Nov 15 '20

#oop #tutorial #programming #patterns

More info

what is in a name

Credits

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

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There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.

Phil Karlton