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The term "code smell" is just so... cute.

• wwweston 11y ago
  I really dislike the term myself. It's not just cute, it's jargon-y. It's language that leans away from describing a problem and towards unexplained pejorative -- and it's a concept that leans away from talking specifically about what's wrong and towards a vague sense that something deeper might be wrong. * "Oh, man. You've got a long function there. That's a code smell, you know." * "Long functions often involve keeping track of a lot of state or activity -- and that makes it hard to keep a clear mental model of what it does, making it more likely that you'll make mistakes. See if you can break it down into a series of smaller, simpler functions that are easy to reason about."
  • collyw 11y ago
    Its like saying "you're doing it wrong" without explaining what is better.
• ak39 11y ago
  You'd think the etymology had anything to do with another cute term - "code rot", but no. No science of origin here. Programming culture (today?) is highly egotistical, judgmental, conformist and, paradoxically, divisive.* Ageist too. Such pejoratives are now common in tech. So we wait for gangrenous functions or putrid variables. * I mean I don't see cabbage farmers go at each other with the same ferocity and psycho venom about methodologies of growing greener or purple(r) crop. (Ok, I admit my ignorance of the whole cabbage farming culture.)