Code Smell 57 - Versioned Functions

sort, sortOld, sort20210117, workingSort, It is great to have them all. Just in case

Problems

• Readability

• Maintainability

Solutions

1. Keep just one working version of your artefact (class, method, attribute).

2. Leave time control to your version control system.

Sample Code

Wrong

findMatch()
findMatch_new()
findMatch_newer()
findMatch_newest()
findMatch_version2()
findMatch_old()
findMatch_working()
findMatch_for_real()
findMatch_20200229()
findMatch_thisoneisnewer()
findMatch_themostnewestone()
findMatch_thisisit()
findMatch_thisisit_for_real()

Right

findMatch()

Detection

We can add automatic rules to find versioned methods with patterns.

Like many other patters we might create an internal policy and communicate.

Tags

• Versioning

Conclusion

Time and code evolution management is always present in software development. Luckily nowadays we have mature tools to address this problem.

Relations

Code Smell 05 - Comment Abusers

Maxi Contieri ・ Oct 24 '20

#codenewbie #tutorial #beginners

Credits

Photo by K8 on Unsplash

Original idea

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That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.

Chuck Palahniuk

Software Engineering Great Quotes

Maxi Contieri ・ Dec 28 '20

#codenewbie #programming #quotes #software

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.

How to Find the Stinky parts of your Code

Maxi Contieri ・ May 21 '21

#codenewbie #tutorial #codequality #beginners

Comments

[Junxiao Shi]

What if:

• It's a C function, where optional arguments are not supported.
• A new version of the function adds an extra argument.
• Old version cannot be deleted because it would break dependants.

The only way is to keep both old and new functions.

Real example: pipe and pipe2 in Linux syscall

[Maxi Contieri]

Many bad languages introduce unavoidable code smells

We should be aware of them

[Michiel Hendriks]

That doesn't change the fact that it is a code smell. Sometimes language or runtime restrictions make code smells unavoidable.