TL;DR: Don't over-generalize

Problems

• Speculative Design

• Complexity

• Over-Engineering

Solutions

1. Remove the interface until you get more examples

Context

In the past, programmers told us to design for change.

Nowadays, We follow the scientific method.

Whenever we find a duplication we remove it.

Not before.

Sample Code

Wrong

public interface Vehicle {
    public void start();
    public void stop();
}

public class Car implements Vehicle {
    public void start() {
        System.out.println("Running...");
    }
    public void stop() {
        System.out.println("Stopping...");
    }
}

// No more vehicles??

Right

public class Car {
    public void start() {
        System.out.println("Running...");
    }
    public void stop() {
        System.out.println("Stopping...");
    }
}

// Wait until more vehicles are discovered

Detection

[X] Automatic

This is very easy for our linters since they can trace this error at compile time.

Exceptions

This rule applies to inter system definition and business logic.

Some frameworks define an Interface as protocol to be fulfilled.

On our bijections we need to model existing real world protocols.

Interfaces are the MAPPER correspondence to protocol.

Dependency injection protocols declare interfaces that are fulfilled with their realizations. Until then, they can be empty.

Tags

• Over Design

Relations

Conclusion

We need to wait for abstractions and not be creative and speculative

Credits

Photo by Brian Kostiuk on Unsplash

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I love software, because if you can imagine something, you can build it.

Ray Ozzie

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This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.