Code Smell 47 - Diagrams

Code Smell 47 - Diagrams

Diagrams are not code. They cannot be a code smell. They are just Diagram Smells.

TL;DR: Don't use diagrams. They are obsolete and dead.

Problems

  • Maintainability

  • Trash code

  • Code Duplication

  • Diagrams focus only on structure (accidental) and not behavior (essential).

Solutions

  1. Use diagrams only to communicate ideas with other humans.

  2. Program on your favorite IDE.

  3. Thrash all diagrams. Even the ones generated from the source code.

  4. Trust your tests. They are alive and well maintained.

  5. Use Domain Driven Design technique.

Sample Code

Wrong

class-example-library-domain.png

Right

Detection

We can remove all code annotations and forbid them by policy.

Examples

Conclusion

Designing is a contact sport. We need to prototype and learn from our running models.

Papers and JPGs don't run. They live in the utopic world where everything works smoothly.

CASE was a very hot trend back in the 90s. No good system was developed with these tools.

Relations

More info

Credits

Photo by Nick Seagrave on Unsplash


The Diagram is Not the Model. The model is not the diagram. It is an abstraction, a set of concepts and relationships between them.

Eric Evans



This article is part of the CodeSmell Series.