Code Smell 57 - Versioned Functions

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

Problems

• Readability

• Maintanability

Solutions

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

2. Leave time control to your version control system.

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

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 ・ 1 min read

#codenewbie #tutorial #beginners

Credits

Photo by K8 on Unsplash

Original idea

Santiago

@svpino

Who needs version control?

code
code_new
code_newer
code_newest
code_for_real
code_thisoneisnewer
code_themostnewestone
code_thisisit
code_thisisit_for_real

18:11 PM - 23 Dec 2020

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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

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.