The code-quality tag has no wiki summary.
4
votes
6answers
277 views
How to deal with over-complication?
I often catch myself doing code unnecessarily complicated (sad but true). Is there any set of rules, discipline, etc to help avoid that? (excluding the KISS principle, because I know it but often ...
1
vote
2answers
152 views
how to nicely use constant std::string in c++
In my current code project, there is an awful lot of constant strings I use to print out error messages.
Hardcoding such strings is generally considered to be bad practice.
Now I'm searching for a ...
5
votes
1answer
84 views
Experiments correlating code metrics to bug density
I'm wondering if someone has done some experiments correlating code metrics (SLOC, Cyclomatic Complexity, etc) with bug density in Object Oriented applications.
I'm not looking for experiments that ...
-1
votes
6answers
324 views
Code plagiarism(copy-paste) detection tool? [closed]
Is there any tool that could detect palgiarism(copy-paste) in a code base?
What I(my friend) needs, is to find a tool, that could detect any copy-paste that the code base could have, by comparing it ...
9
votes
9answers
424 views
Passing member variable as a method parameter
In a project, I've found a code like this:
class SomeClass
{
private SomeType _someField;
public SomeType SomeField
{
get { return _someField; }
set { _someField = value; ...
20
votes
3answers
634 views
Is use of finally clause for doing work after return bad style/dangerous?
As part of writing an Iterator, I found myself writing the following piece of code (stripping error handling)
public T next() {
try {
return next;
} finally {
next = ...
6
votes
6answers
716 views
What is the difference between Static code analysis and code review?
I just wanted to know what the difference is between static code analysis and code review. How are each of these two done? More specifically, what are the tools available today for code review/static ...
41
votes
17answers
2k views
How would you know if you've written readable and easily maintainable code?
How would one know if the code he created is easily maintainable and readable? Of course in your point of view (the one who written the code) your code is readable and maintainable, but we should be ...
8
votes
5answers
435 views
Is it OK to repeat code for unit tests?
I wrote some sorting algorithms for a class assignment and I also wrote a few tests to make sure the algorithms were implemented correctly. My tests are only like 10 lines long and there are 3 of ...
0
votes
3answers
166 views
Any Code Review tool with direct connection to CVS?
I've found many Code Review tools:
Phabricator (by Facebook) - http://phabricator.org/
Rietveld (by Google) - http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/rietveld.html
GitHub - https://github.com/
...
12
votes
4answers
740 views
How should code “Goal Tending” be handled by a Development Manager?
First allow me to coin a term:
code goal-tending: Checking out code in the morning, then silently reviewing all of the changes made by the other developers the previous day
file by file, ...
7
votes
4answers
228 views
How large should a Python module be?
I was browsing a github project and found this module which has more than 8 thousands lines.
Is it good practice to have that much code in a single module?
Shouldn't this be split over multiple ...
2
votes
3answers
244 views
What code smell best describes this code?
Suppose you have this code in a class:
private DataContext _context;
public Customer[] GetCustomers()
{
GetContext();
return _context.Customers.ToArray();
}
public Order[] GetOrders()
{
...
5
votes
6answers
300 views
How to set up a one-man research in the difference between BDD and Waterfall?
Earlier, I asked a question about how to measure the quality of a project. The outcome of that question was that the quality of the project can be divided into two parts:
Internal quality (code ...
3
votes
3answers
151 views
What quality level in the commit history can/should I expect/enforce?
I worked as a lone developer for a long time. During this time, I developed a way of formulating and ordering commit messages: Refactor first, describe exactly the reason for the commit in the ...
4
votes
3answers
199 views
Is it a bad practice to use inline styling with generated code?
If I'm using a technology like Grails. It's really easy to wind up with inline styling.
Are there any downsides to auto-generating code with inline styling? Is this considered bad practice? Why?
5
votes
2answers
225 views
What is the pattern name for using method chaining to build an object?
I frequently use a pattern where I using method chaining to setup an object, similar to a Builder or Prototype pattern, but not creating new objects with each method call, instead modifying the ...
2
votes
3answers
168 views
Should a method do one thing and be good at it?
"Extract Till You Drop" is someting I've read in Uncle Bob's blog, meaning that a method should do one thing alone be good at it.
What is that one thing? When should you stop extracting methods?
...
9
votes
13answers
682 views
how to find out if spelling mistakes in source code are a serious issue or not?
I find very troubling amount of spelling mistakes I see everyday in our codebase, from which I will reproduce a very short but representative example:
ArgumnetCount
Timeount
Gor message from queue
...
6
votes
5answers
174 views
Splitting 1 large object into 2 tightly-coupled ones - good, bad?
I have a complex object (call it BusinessLogic) which provides an RPC interface to semi-trusted users. The functions in the RPC interface have to decide which procedure to call, check authorisation ...
2
votes
4answers
139 views
What is considered best practice for printing usage / help (--help)?
When writing tools for the CLI of UNIX, how should I make the program print out help and/or usage?
I usually use fprintf(stderr, "help text here");, but there are several issues with that.
First, ...
-3
votes
4answers
230 views
What are good strategies in C for dealing with pointer errors of this type?
In C, I often come across errors with code like this
prio_queue->head[index] = newEntry;
Yields a " "Cannot assign Entry** to Entry* "
How do you prevent/debug errors of this type, in general? ...
3
votes
2answers
162 views
How to go about bring up the topic of bad programming practices with colleague [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
How do I approach a coworker about his or her code quality?
My development colleague is producing numerous blocks of code which I am a bit concerned doesn't really make ...
2
votes
2answers
141 views
How do you handle minor change in source code causing discontinuity in version tree?
For instance, I have a file with poor indentation (at least incoherant with the rest of the project).
If I correct the indentation and commit, there will be a serious change in the file at a certain ...
22
votes
8answers
694 views
How can I quantify the amount of technical debt that exists in a project?
Does anyone know if there is some kind of tool to put a number on technical debt of a code base, as a kind of code metric? If not, is anyone aware of an algorithm or set of heuristics for it?
If ...
50
votes
16answers
2k views
Do We Have a Responsiblity to Improve Old Code?
I was looking over some old code that I wrote. It works, but it's not great code. I know more now than I did at the time, so I could improve it. It's not a current project, but it's current, ...
-4
votes
1answer
124 views
Is it Good Practice to Comment Code? [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
“Comments are a code smell”
I have been confused about this issue ever since I made my first ever Hello World program. The problem is that I always get ...
10
votes
6answers
790 views
Need to make my code more readable to the other programers in my team
I am working a project in delphi 7 and I am creating a installer for the application,
there are Three main parts.
PostgreSQL installation/uninstallation
myapplication ( setup of myapplication is ...
17
votes
8answers
760 views
Adding complexity to remove duplicate code
I have several classes that all inherit from a generic base class. The base class contains a collection of several objects of type T.
Each child class needs to be able to calculate interpolated ...
-2
votes
1answer
144 views
What are the things that you consider in reviewing an iOS source code?
We're going to do some peer reviews for our iOS projects. We're kind of inexperienced at reviewing each other's codes. The iOS developers attending the reviews will be from other projects, since ...
1
vote
1answer
130 views
How to quantify benefits from a programming training?
I'm conducting a programming training for 3 months. Details in this link - Programming Training Details.
My question is "How do we quantify benefits from such training?".
I think the two important ...
18
votes
5answers
543 views
Keep it simple now, or program with the future in mind?
I'm currently coding a new application for my company that is rather involved. To meet the deadline, the functionality has been toned down quite a bit so that we can have something ready to go for ...
7
votes
2answers
262 views
Are there any opensource APIs that help analyze code?
As an example, let's say that I need to check for a certain usage of C# code and warn the user that that is a bad pratice. There are multiple usages that I want to detect, such as:
Resource not ...
1
vote
5answers
102 views
Automatic sorting of class/module members and its possible impact on productivity and code quality
Recently I saw some possibilities of some IDEs (via plugins) to sort members of their classes/modules based on some criteria, sou you could have everything sorted automaticaly no matter where you ...
31
votes
12answers
2k views
How do I approach a coworker about his or her code quality?
I work on a new venture at a large enterprise software company (3000+ programmers). In my group, we have a bunch of projects and people usually work on several projects over the course of a year.
I ...
3
votes
5answers
277 views
Example bad code project to motivate refactoring / good design [closed]
This is sort of the opposite of Is there an open-source project that can be an example of well-written code?.
I am teaching software engineering to undergraduates and I would like a blob of object ...
32
votes
11answers
2k views
What does a code review look like?
I'm writing a code review process document for our team; we've never had a formal process in place although we do do some code review.
I've found lots of articles talking about how important code ...
7
votes
10answers
874 views
Overcome clumsiness in writing code
I believe this is a little related with this question: How to be a zero-bug programmer?.
But I believe this is more regarding clumsiness in programming because I know it is impossible to become a zero ...
7
votes
4answers
153 views
Advice/Approach for distilling homogenous code and building common code for a team
I work for the State of California. Our programming team in my opinion is not really a 'team' in that we usually work solo on projects throughout the application/systems complete life-cycle.
The end ...
8
votes
7answers
412 views
Keep my classes and methods as small as possible?
A few days ago, I was talking to a Software Engineering PhD candidate and at some point she said to me:
Keep your classes and methods as small as possible
And I wonder if this is always a good ...
0
votes
2answers
92 views
SONAR and DesignForExtensionCheck Rule
When enabling SONAR on an in-house Java project, there are a large number of violations being reported due to the rule DesignForExtensionCheck. Whilst I agree with the theory that all classes/methods ...
2
votes
3answers
214 views
in doubt of using code generators
I am now entering the world of java ee 6. And I am supposed to used different technologies like jsf, jpa, different kinds of beans and all that stuff.
I am learning using the netbeans IDE, which is, ...
8
votes
3answers
494 views
How can I define and measure simplicity in code?
There are many answers in my previous question about simplicity relating to readability that helped me see my definition and understanding of simplicity in code was, quite possibly, incorrect.
How ...
23
votes
15answers
1k views
Does simplicity always improve Readability?
Recently, I was developing a set of coding standards for our company. (We're a new team branching out into a new language for the company.)
On my first draft, I set the purpose of our coding ...
10
votes
7answers
445 views
How do I go from being able to write code to being a good developer?
I'm frustrated by the lack of concrete explanations on how to go from being able to script (bash, awk) and write simple applications (c, php, python) to designing and developing larger, more ...
7
votes
3answers
468 views
How to write manageable code with functional programming?
I just started with functional programming (with JavaScript and Node.js) and from the look of things it looks as if the code I am writing would grow to be one hell of a code base to manage, when ...
3
votes
2answers
176 views
Getting solutions off the internet. Bad or Good? [closed]
I was looking on the internet for common interview questions. I came upon one that was about finding the occurrences of certain characters in an array. The solution written right below it was in my ...
2
votes
3answers
235 views
How can I convince my managers to enforce documentation standards?
I'm trying to convince another group in my company— that's about to hand code off to my group—that they need to provide more documentation in their source code, but they're treating it as a "nice to ...
13
votes
11answers
2k views
About empty line of code
Why do my colleagues hate it when I add an empty line of code?
Sometimes I add a few lines to see when a method ends and another one starts more easily.
22
votes
7answers
754 views
How can I learn to effectively write Pythonic code?
I'm tired of getting downvoted and/or semi-rude comments on my Python answers, saying things like "this isn't Pythonic" or "that's not the Python way of doing things". To clarify, I'm not tired of ...
