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Why do so many people use the word smell to disparage code? The human part of me always feels it's super douchy and elitist, and the engineer part hates it beca

Why do so many people use the word smell to disparage code? The human part of me always feels it's super douchy and elitist, and the engineer part hates it because it's inaccurate and misleading.

Jtsummers 6y ago
It's an analogy to the way we detect things like food spoilage or gas leaks by smell. For the vast majority of us most code smells are actually observed visually (Why is this nested 10 levels deep? Why are there 20 parameters to this method?) so I suppose we could start saying code eyesores, but that often has the wrong sense (even more strongly negative) than smell. It's really only douchy or elitist if it's strictly used in an insulting or disparaging way. Most of the time when people talk about code smells it's meant to indicate, just like with real-world odd, bad, or unexpected smells: Something doesn't seem right. I could be wrong, but it warrants investigation. Using the examples above, deep nesting and large numbers of parameters are indications of a potential problem, but are not necessarily problems. It could be that a refactoring is in order, but it may also be that everything is fine (just not pretty).
- grayhatter 6y ago
  I understand the point of the analogy, my question was more why is such a bad one so popular. something something makes my hair stand up, as alternative that's actually good; used to mean the feeling of anxiety. No one mentions smells when they're talking about good code. Similar to normal american english conversations, if someone mentions a smell unprovoked, it's normally a disgusting smell. So when used against code, it's implying the code is repulsive. Which to me at least feels super insulting to respond to code (text on a screen) with such a vicseral response, of distrust/dislike.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    I don't think everyone, let alone most people, makes the leap from "smell" to "repulsive". "My fridge smells funny" is not the same as "My fridge smells so bad it makes me want to puke". The first is a cause for investigation, the second is a cause for real concern. Most code "smells" are in the former category, they are not describing the code as "repulsive" but "off". If you're making that leap then you're going to need to supply (or find) another term for what is described, for now over 20 years, as a code smell. Since most people don't have the same visceral reaction you do, they won't care.
pmarreck 6y ago
It's a qualitative word for a qualitative assessment. For example, it is quite possible that code that is nested 30 levels deep is provably correct. Since we are humans, is that likely? No, it is not. Or at least, it is certainly less likely than 3-level-deep code. So you look at some code and without doing any deep analysis you can make some "probably valid" assumptions which come from your experience. If you're so bent on accurate engineering, answer me this: Why are technology choices often "fashion-driven", without any significant empirical data to support their choice over other alternatives? (My latest pet peeve in this space is widespread use of Docker.) And where data DOES exist (such as to support the statement "Functional languages produce far fewer bugs per LOC written"), why don't more programmers/engineers heed that?

Why do so many people use the word smell to disparage code? The human part of me always feels it's super douchy and elitist, and the engineer part hates it because it's inaccurate and misleading.

Jtsummers 6y ago

It's an analogy to the way we detect things like food spoilage or gas leaks by smell. For the vast majority of us most code smells are actually observed visually (Why is this nested 10 levels deep? Why are there 20 parameters to this method?) so I suppose we could start saying code eyesores, but that often has the wrong sense (even more strongly negative) than smell. It's really only douchy or elitist if it's strictly used in an insulting or disparaging way. Most of the time when people talk about code smells it's meant to indicate, just like with real-world odd, bad, or unexpected smells: Something doesn't seem right. I could be wrong, but it warrants investigation. Using the examples above, deep nesting and large numbers of parameters are indications of a potential problem, but are not necessarily problems. It could be that a refactoring is in order, but it may also be that everything is fine (just not pretty).

grayhatter 6y ago
I understand the point of the analogy, my question was more why is such a bad one so popular. something something makes my hair stand up, as alternative that's actually good; used to mean the feeling of anxiety. No one mentions smells when they're talking about good code. Similar to normal american english conversations, if someone mentions a smell unprovoked, it's normally a disgusting smell. So when used against code, it's implying the code is repulsive. Which to me at least feels super insulting to respond to code (text on a screen) with such a vicseral response, of distrust/dislike.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  I don't think everyone, let alone most people, makes the leap from "smell" to "repulsive". "My fridge smells funny" is not the same as "My fridge smells so bad it makes me want to puke". The first is a cause for investigation, the second is a cause for real concern. Most code "smells" are in the former category, they are not describing the code as "repulsive" but "off". If you're making that leap then you're going to need to supply (or find) another term for what is described, for now over 20 years, as a code smell. Since most people don't have the same visceral reaction you do, they won't care.

pmarreck 6y ago

It's a qualitative word for a qualitative assessment. For example, it is quite possible that code that is nested 30 levels deep is provably correct. Since we are humans, is that likely? No, it is not. Or at least, it is certainly less likely than 3-level-deep code. So you look at some code and without doing any deep analysis you can make some "probably valid" assumptions which come from your experience. If you're so bent on accurate engineering, answer me this: Why are technology choices often "fashion-driven", without any significant empirical data to support their choice over other alternatives? (My latest pet peeve in this space is widespread use of Docker.) And where data DOES exist (such as to support the statement "Functional languages produce far fewer bugs per LOC written"), why don't more programmers/engineers heed that?