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I distinctly remember the first time I looked at a overly long and complicated model class and thought: "OMG, this is a state machine!" - a shortish refactor la

I distinctly remember the first time I looked at a overly long and complicated model class and thought: "OMG, this is a state machine!" - a shortish refactor later and it was much simpler to read and debug. However, now I'm at a loss on how to teach the junior programmers at my company how to recognize which patterns scream "turn me into a state machine!" Several booleans triggering certain code paths in several methods is a pretty sure sign. Are there more?

bsder 9y ago
The word "protocol" is a big red flag that you should be using a state machine. The words "event loop" probably mean you need a state machine. If "time" is an input variable, you probably have a state machine.
- disease 9y ago
  Your second and third points are why I love having state machines in the games I develop.
- criddell 9y ago
  I've also found the presence of a mode variable a good indicator that a FSM should at least be considered.
yen223 9y ago
If you have a "status" field in your object, chances are you can represent it as a state machine